Ryo's gift
by lostinmymind16
Summary: Ryo gains new powers but when they cause his friends to kick him out and he returns to his abusive parents thigs just go down hill. R&R please complete
1. Voices

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ronin Warriors and I am not making any money off this story. So don't sue. I need all my money for gas.**

Authors note: words written like _this_ are thought speech. Hope you like it and review.

Chapter 1 Head Aches and voices

_I hate mornings,… Kento better not have used all the hot water._

_Cooking, cooking, …maybe I should make eggs…._

_I hope Cye made bacon….Oh no its Sage…_

_Homework…now where did I put it_

"Oh man, my head is killing me." Ryo wasn't sure when it started, this waking up every morning feeling like something was trying to claw out of his head, but he knew that if it didn't stop soon he was going to have to do something about it. Not only was he waking up with headaches every morning but in the between period of sleep and wakefulness he thought he could hear voices inside his head.

"Maybe I should talk to Sage about this. He would know what to do." He had actually gone to Sage many times over the last week trying to get up the nerve to tell him but he just couldn't do it. It's not easy trying to tell your best friend that your hearing voices.

"AHHH, Sage what did you do that for! That was cold."

Must be Kento, used all the hot water again. You would think that he would learn. Ryo slowly got out of bed careful not to move his head too much for fear of the shooting pains that he knew would come. He moved towards his sock drawer where he had managed to hide one of the few bottles of migraine strength Tylenol that were in the house.

_Man that Sage he makes me so mad_

Ryo muffled a scream; the pain in his head had just doubled. If he wasn't careful he knew that some of the pain would leak into the bond, but just before the pain he thought he heard a voice…Kento maybe. Slowly he could feel the effect of the Tylenol. The pain was still there but it was down to a bearable level.

"Hey Ryo! You need to get…Oh your up already"

"Yeah Rowen I'm up" Ryo reached down to move some socks to hide the bottle again.

"Well, ah anyway Cye says breakfast is ready. He made…"

"Eggs. I know," said an irritated Ryo. All he wanted was for Rowen to leave so he could maybe sneak in a few more Tylenol.

"Ok well I'll just be going then"

Ryo felt that he needed to let Rowen know it was nothing personal he just wanted to be alone.

"Hey Rowen?"

"Yeah Ryo"

"Did you find your homework, this morning?"

"Yeah, it was under…Wait a minute how did you know that I lost it?" Rowen stopped in the hallway and looked back at Ryo. Sometimes he wondered how Ryo did that, seemed to know things that no one else knew. Like the other day when he just happened to know that Kento was eating ice cream with out looking at him, or how he knew what Cye was making for breakfast before Cye had even started making it. He was beginning to get worried about Ryo. There were always dark circles around his eyes in the mornings like he hadn't slept for days and he looked like he was loosing weight.

"Oh um I don't know." At Ryo's confused look Rowen just let it slide as another lucky guess, but for Ryo it wasn't that easy.

I don't get it how do I know these things about the people around me, when I haven't talked to them. It just doesn't make sense. Ryo left his room and headed down stairs for breakfast.

"Sage, why don't you just get up earlier and beat Kento to the shower?" asked Mia

"Cause I think that some of us around here should be more considerate of others and not use all the hot water." Sage replied angrily

_I wonder if Ryo would let me use his shower. He does have his own hot water heater and everything._

"Hey just because your angry with Kento doesn't mean you have to take it out on poor Mia." Said Rowen

_Mia must have the patience of a saint to deal with Sage and Kento every morning. At least I normally sleep through it._

"Guys will you please not argue. At least wait until I get the table set" said Cye as he walked into the room

_Sometimes they are just so immature I wish they would just grow up._

"Hey don't put me in the same league as those idiots. I wasn't arguing. Was I Ryo?" asked Kento

Everyone looked towards Ryo but he was just sitting there, staring straight ahead with a glazed look in his eyes. Everyone looked at each other. They were all beginning to worry about him.

"Ryo?"

Still there was no response

"Hey man, are you still in there somewhere?" Kento reached out and snapped his hands in front of Ryo's face. Ryo gasped and looked around at everyone slightly sheepish.

"I guess I zoned out there for a minute."

"I wasn't arguing was I?" asked an impatient Kento

"What, I don't remember any argument. Sage asked me if he could use my shower in the mornings." Ryo looks over at Sage as if for confirmation, "Which he can if he wants as long as he leaves some hot water for me, can't take cold bathes you know." Said Ryo while laughing.

"Ryo I didn't ask you if I could use your shower. I was thinking about asking but I didn't actually ask."

"You must have asked, I mean how else would I know."

"Yeah maybe your right" Sage realized how uncomfortable this was making Ryo and decided to end the conversation. Still he wondered how did Ryo know?


	2. Ryo leaves

Chapter 2 Ryo leaves

Cye couldn't believe that everyone had decided to go on a picnic in the middle of winter, but here they all were in a park near Mia's house having a picnic. He looked around to see what everyone was doing and wasn't surprised at what he saw. Rowen was sitting under one of the trees reading some huge book. Kento was trying to get Yulie to play a game of soccer with him. Sage was meditating and Mia was trying to get Kento to stop playing and help her unload the jeep, which left only Ryo to find.

"Hey have any of you seen Ryo?"

"No and who cares!" was Kento's reply

Cye knew that no one else was going to voice another opinion. Over the last few months Ryo had been pulling away from the group, spending more and more time by himself. At first everyone had worried about him but as he began snapping at anyone who asked if he was ok or even tried to talk to him, everyone stopped asking and attempted to avoid him as much as possible. Cye got up to look for Ryo since it seemed that no one else was going to.

"Ryo! Where are you!" Cye had wandered pretty far down one of the nearby hiking trails and had yet to see Ryo. He was beginning to get worried. "Ryo!" As he came around the next bend in the trail he caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye and there sat Ryo. "Oh God! Ryo don't move."

Ryo was standing on a frozen lake, but the ice wasn't very thick. There were holes all over the place, in one a lone duck was trying to catch a fish. As Cye edged closer to Ryo he saw the same glazed look on his face that had become almost permanent and he realized that Ryo was mumbling constantly. He could just barely make out what he was saying.

"Swim, Hungry, Food, Swim, Food, Hungry" Ryo just kept repeating the words over and over and began to walk farther onto the ice.

"RYO NO!" Cye ran towards Ryo and reached out to grab him, but to his surprise Ryo screamed and punched Cye and then pushed him into the water. Cye easily swam back to the surface and pulled himself up on to the bank. Then was almost hit by the duck flying towards him. When he had recovered from the shock of the duck and the dip in the cold water, he looked to see where Ryo was. Ryo was back on the bank and was laughing as hard as he could at Cye.

"Don't you know its not the right time of the year to be swimming in the lake and then the duck…"Ryo trailed off. He was no longer laughing. The looks that Cye were sending him, full of anger and contempt caused him to stop. "What's wrong Cye?"

"YOU, you're what's wrong! What if it had been someone else that had come out there to get you? If it had been anyone but me that water would have Killed them! YOU DIDN"T EVEN LOOK, RYO! You could have killed someone and now you just sit there laughing. I can't believe you. First you pull away from us all and now this. Maybe you should just go back to where ever the hell you came from and leave us all alone."

"What do you mean Cye? You and the guys don't want me here anymore?"

"Yes that is exactly what I am saying! So just leave! I was the only one left that was willing to come and look for you when you disappeared and you throw me in the lake for my effort. Well just get lost! The guys won't miss you and neither will I!"

Cye turned and started walking away. Under normal circumstances he might have felt bad saying what he did, but he was soaking wet, cold, and felt totally justified in telling Ryo what everyone thought.

"Cye wait. I am …"

"Ryo don't even bother coming back. Just leave."

"Fine if everyone wants their leader to leave then I will!"

Cye didn't even look back when he heard Ryo running in the opposite direction from the picnic and the rest of the guys.

Ryo's POV

The headache was back again and this time worse than ever before. He could barely hear Cye talking to him but he knew Cye was angry with him. Cye's anger had become like a searing flame in his mind burning everything it touched. Then the anger turned to hate and all Ryo could feel was Cye's anger and hatred. He was having problems finding his own feelings they were so jumbled up and lost inside of Cye's. He only caught bits and pieces of what Cye was saying. He knew that Cye wanted him to leave and that the rest of the guys supported the idea. He didn't know how he knew he just knew. Suddenly he could hear what Cye was saying and it seemed too loud like it was echoing inside his head. Then he realized that he was hearing it inside his head and that what he was hearing in his head was a couple of words ahead of Cye's lips. It was like he was hearing Cye's thoughts.

"Cye wait. I am…"

"Ryo don't bother coming back just leave."

Something inside Ryo snapped. He wasn't sure what it was but he knew that he had to get away and get away fast. He had to be going crazy. He was hearing thoughts and now Cye was telling him to leave. No it wasn't just Cye. He could feel through the bond with the other Ronin Warriors and echo of the same things Cye had said. He was truly unwanted here. They wanted him to leave.

"Fine if everyone wants their leader to leave then I will!"

Ryo turned and ran. He didn't know where he was going, but he had to get away from all these feelings and thoughts that didn't belong to him. Over the last few months it became increasingly hard for him to be anywhere near his friends. Some times when they were close to him the headache would become so painful that he just wanted them to go away. It had caused him to hurt their feelings on many occasions but he couldn't really remember what it was he had said or to who. Everything that had happened the last few months had blurred together to the point that he couldn't separate reality from his dreams. The headaches had gotten worse. He thought maybe he had talked to Sage or tried to but it could have been a dream.

Ryo was loosing his grip on reality. There were just too many voices in his head saying too many different things. The only thought that came through was that he had to go home. He would be safe from the voices at home. Memories of his childhood surfaced, his mother dieing, having to leave the mountains and move to the city with his father, and then a long period of black space where he didn't remember anything. He thought briefly of the blank space but something told him he didn't want to remember


	3. Going Home

Chapter 3 Going Home

Sage was shaken from his meditation by a wave of fear, anger, and confusion. When he tried to place where it came from he thought it came from Ryo but that was impossible. The feelings that had hit him were from a mind that was unorganized and distorted, something he might feel from an animal. Just then Cye came walking back from his search for Ryo.

"So you didn't find him?" sneered Kento "Well after the last few months I almost wish that he would just leave for awhile and give us a break."

"Yeah I have been thinking that lately too. If Ryo wants to be so defensive and angry let him go home for awhile and then when he feels ready to talk to us he can come back." Rowen admitted

Sage didn't say anything. Ryo _had_ been trying to talk to him. He would come up and start to talk to Sage but then he would just say never mind and leave. When Sage had finally come to Ryo to see if there was anything bothering him, Ryo had freaked. Told him leave him the hell alone and that if he wanted to play psychiatrist he could just do it somewhere else. He knew that it was out of character for Ryo to say things like this especially to his friends but it had made him mad, despite himself. Every time after that, when Ryo came to talk to him he ignored him or just plain walked off. They were all doing that now, ever since Ryo had started lashing out at the slightest things, but he wasn't sure he wanted Ryo to leave.

"Yeah well I don't think we have to worry about that anymore." Said Cye

Sage had a bad feeling about this. Cye had done something to Ryo. He could feel it. Ever since the fight with Talpa he had blocked most of his ability as an empath. There was no reason for him to constantly feel what ever his friends were feeling and it sometimes gave him headaches. The only thing that he had not blocked was his ability to feel evil. Right now, after that wave of emotion earlier, he had unblocked his power. What he was getting from Cye right now was the same thing that he would have gotten from Kento when he stole a cookie from the cookie jar, the knowledge that he had done something wrong but he didn't feel much, if any remorse for it.

"I found Ryo and he attacked me. He was just standing out on a barely frozen lake mumbling nonsense. I went out to get him, since you know what would happen if he fell in the freezing water. When I got there he screamed and threw me into the water." Explained Cye.

"I wondered why you were all wet." Said Yulie philosophically. Cye ignored him and just kept going.

"Well if it had been anyone else but me, the water would have killed them. I just sort of snapped and I told him to go. Just to leave and that none of us wanted him here anymore. Then he said if we didn't want him here that was fine he would just leave and he ran off." Cye finished telling the story.

Sage could tell that despite the nonchalance that he was trying achieve, Cye was actually beginning to feel ashamed of what he had done and was hoping that the no one would be too mad with him.

"Way to go Cye. Never thought you had it in you. Well I guess Ryo gets his break from us and we get our break from him."

It was quite apparent that Kento had no problems with what Cye had done, but Sage figured that was reasonable. Ryo had been the hardest on Kento. Well that just left Rowen to say what he thought.

"Well I don't exactly think that was the right way to get Ryo to leave. Plus even though I had been thinking that myself, I never would have made him leave. Did either of you truly look at Ryo lately. He has lost a lot of weight and he looks deathly ill. None of you can tell me you haven't noticed the way his eyes are almost always glazed and he doesn't really seem aware of what is going on around him. I think that he was sick and we just chased him away from the only place he has."

"Come on Rowen. So what if Ryo was a little sick. That didn't mean that he had to treat us the way he did and Cye was right he could have killed one of us." Argued Kento

"I guess your right. Ryo was becoming a danger to us all. Maybe all he needed was a break from us. I just don't think Cye should have made him leave angry with us."

"Does anyone know where Ryo lived before everyone moved into my house?" asked Mia

Everyone sort of looked at each other. No one knew. Ryo didn't talk much about his life before becoming a Ronin Warrior. All Sage knew was that his mother had died when Ryo was very young. When Sage first met Ryo, his aurora had many of the signs of a person that lost their mother at an early age. It gave off a hidden loneliness and sorrow. For the first few months after meeting Ryo it had stayed and then as he began to develop bonds with his friends it disappeared.

"I don't think we know. Ryo doesn't talk much about his past." Said Rowen after looking at everyone's blank faces.

"Well when we first met him I thought that he came from some where in the mountains cause he just seemed like that kind of guy." Said Kento

"Nah, he lived in a house with his father on the outskirts of the city." Said Yulie

Everyone stopped and looked at Yulie. Sage couldn't help wondering how Yulie seemed to know this when Ryo's friends who had known him for years didn't know.

"Yulie, how do you know this?" asked Sage.

"I uh, went through Ryo's things. He had taken away my sword when I accidentally hit him with it and I was looking for it. I found this book with all these addresses in it and one was a house address and Ryo had written Dad next to it." Yulie looked really embarrassed now. He was afraid that he was going to be in trouble for going through Ryo's things.

"Well then that's settled. In a month we'll throw a party and invite Ryo back. Then if he still isn't better we can force him to tell us what is wrong." Kento then sat down and started eating; to him the problem was solved.

Sage looked around, trying to gage if everyone else was just going to let Ryo leave like this. It seemed so. Rowen and Mia didn't look too happy about the idea, but they remained quiet. Cye was still too mad about what had happened to not like the plan. The only ones who seemed to be upset and ready to voice his opinion was Yulie, but then he sat down and began eating too. Sage knew that it was because Yulie thought that his opinion wasn't going to matter.

Sage just couldn't believe that the inseparable Ronin Warriors were just going to let Ryo leave like that, but he also couldn't help but think that maybe they had done the right thing. Ryo was becoming a danger to them all. He had seen Ryo almost hit Yulie when Yulie had asked Ryo to play soccer with him. Sage sat down and remained silent.

Ryo POV

"Sir in order to ride on this bus you have to buy a ticket." Said an exasperated ticket master

"I have to go home. I have to go home…" Ryo was just rocking himself back and forth and repeating that line over and over.

"Yes sir, you have said that already, but you need money to buy a ticket."

"Listen I'll buy the poor boy his ticket. Can't you see that this young man has some sort of mental instability? He reminds me of my poor autistic grand baby. Let him on the bus and I'll keep him out of trouble." Said this elderly lady behind Ryo in line.

When she said this, a silent cheer could be heard from all of the people standing behind Ryo in line. He had been holding the line up now for the past 15 minutes. Ryo turned and looked at the old lady. She smiled at him. He stopped repeating I have to go home. His mind had jumped again. It was hard for him to stay focused on one thing for too long, especially with all these people around. It had taken everything he had to stay focused on trying to get the ticket master to let him go home. Now he was thinking about his Grandma. His mind became a jumbled mess of voices and memories. Grandma's pie, nice gave me cookies; she'll take me home.

"Come along young man. You can sit next to me on the bus." The elderly lady reached out and took Ryo's hand and began to pull him towards one of the waiting busses. "Your parents must be really worried about you." The lady kept talking to Ryo trying to reassure him that everything would be ok. She told him all kinds of things but Ryo heard little of what she said. He had immersed himself in the feelings of security and happiness that the old lady was giving off. Through it all Ryo sat and rocked slowly back and forth.

A few hours later the bus had reached its destination. When the lady stood up so did Ryo. For some reason Ryo just knew that he couldn't be separated from this lady and that she would keep the voices away. Being around her was also making it easier for him to find himself in all the voices and feelings that were again threatening to overwhelm his mind.

"If you tell me where you live I'll walk you home."

He recited his address and felt a moment of triumph. His grandmother was going to take him home and his mom would be there and everything would be all right. The voices would go away and all these feelings that didn't belong to him, it would all go away. Soon after this they had walked through the down town part of the city. Ryo began to make small whimpering sounds. He was loosing himself again in all these foreign thoughts.

Deadlines…I can't meet them…I am going to loose my job 

_Fire me…I'll show them…_

_I am going to be late to pick her up…_

_Stupid Cab drivers…_

I told him to be here an hour ago… 

Thousands of voices were yelling in his mind. Ryo could no longer distinguish his thoughts from the ones that didn't belong to him. He did the only thing he knew how to do he screamed for help through the bond.


	4. memories

Chapter 4 memories

Sage POV

_HELP ME_

Sage jumped out of bead. He thought for a minute that he had heard Ryo scream for help through the bond, but it couldn't have been Ryo. He must have been imagining it. He couldn't really call it a scream either, it was more like a whispered plea, there was so much static noise around it. He wondered if anyone else in the house heard it. Probably not. The only reason he had even heard was because of his gift. Sage went back to sleep.

Ryo POV

Ryo heard a knocking noise. He knew he had been walking for a while and was now in some other part of the city, but he wasn't real sure where he was or how he had gotten there. He was still with his grandma so it was ok. He was still safe.

"Well young man this is where we leave each other I would think. This is the address that you gave me. So your home." The lady turned and smiled at Ryo

Just then the door to the house opened and a lady stepped out.

"Oh you must be this boys mother. I found him trying to get on a bus to get home from a park quite a long way from here. You should look after him better. I know how hard it can be to care for a boy with autism. They see things differently than we do, and they're especially hard to handle at this age."

The lady, for a moment looked stunned. She looked at Ryo trying to place who he was. Then something changed in her eyes. They took on a more evil look when she realized that this was her husband's stupid boy.

"He can be a handful sometimes. We have thought many times of sending him to a home where maybe he could receive more supervision. You see my husband I both have to work to afford to pay for his special needs. It's just so hard for us to find people to watch him when we are gone. The neighbors were supposed to watch him last week but they left for a few minutes and when they came back he was gone. We have been so worried about him." By this time Ryo's "mother" was crying tears of relief at finding her poor lost boy.

"Well I can come by time to time to keep an eye on him if you wish." The elderly lady gave the young woman her telephone number "I am just happy to have helped." Then she turned to leave.

Ryo turned to leave with her. This wasn't his mother. He needed to stay with his grandma until she found his mother, but someone behind him pulled him into the house.

"Boy I thought that we told you not to come back here ever again." The lady had thrown Ryo into a wall. He just sat there stunned, looking up at her. "We warned you what would happen if you did." She kicked Ryo in the stomach "I should just get rid of you now…. But I think I'll keep you around, we can have some fun. Just like old times huh Ryo." She got some rope and while Ryo lay dazed on the floor tied his hands behind his back. "Get up boy! Your father will be here soon and I don't want him to know you're here just yet."

Ryo registered that he needed to get up. His body seemed to know how to get up with his hands tied behind his back, even if his brain didn't. He felt himself being pushed towards a closed door. Somehow he knew that there was a basement behind that door and that he had spent a lot of time in there. The voices had left. He could think without feeling like he was on drugs now, but he was still recovering from so many intrusions into his mind. The door was opened and he was pushed down the stairs.

When he landed at the bottom he could see a teddy bear not far away from where he had fallen. It was missing an eye and looked like it had been there for a long while. Next to it was a red blanket with flames embroidered on it. In the middle there was a word, he could just barely make it out _Ryo_ and then he remembered…her name was Lydia…

"Daddy why do we have to leave? I don't want to leave." Said a very young boy. The boy was carrying a red blanket and a teddy bear.

"Ryo, we have to leave. We need to move into the city."

"But why daddy?" Ryo was beginning to cry

"Listen Ryo, we are moving and that's the end of it. I am tired of listening to you whine. Your mom may have put up with it but I am not going to have a crybaby for a son."

"I don't want to move." Tears were streaming down Ryo's face "I want to stay here. Please don't…"

"Ryo I said SHUT UP!" Ryo's dad drew back his fist and hit Ryo across the face. Ryo didn't know what to do. Nobody had ever hit him before. He had been spanked but this was different. He didn't stop crying. "Do not ever cry do you hear me. I don't want you to cry or whine again in my presence." He hit Ryo again across the face and this time Ryo didn't cry.

It was a few months later that he was introduced to Lydia.

Ryo was in his room, waiting. He knew that his father was going to be home soon and he needed to be ready. Ever since they had moved to this house the beatings had become more common. He was never sure when to expect it but he knew one was always coming. At first whenever he was hit he couldn't help but cry, but he was a fast learner. He never cried anymore. Ryo tensed. He could hear his father coming down the hallway.

"Ryo I would like you to meet your new mother." A woman walked into Ryo's room. At first Ryo thought she was his mother. They had the same hair color and the same way of walking but Lydia's eyes were full of hatred where his mom's eyes had been full of love.

"She is not my mother. I don't want her here. Make her go away." At this his father punched him across the face. By this time though Ryo was used to this. He lowered his eyes and tried not to move. He knew that any movement would result in another hit to his face.

"Togoro what do you think your doing, hitting your boy like that." At first Ryo thought Lydia was going to stop his father from hitting him again, but then he realized he was mistaken. "If your going to punish the kid you have to make sure you don't do any damage to his face or hands. He has to go to school soon and if he shows up with all of these bruises on his face questions are going to be asked." It was after this that Ryo's life became a living nightmare.

Lydia enjoyed coming up with new ways to torture Ryo. Within the first week of her being there he was kicked out of his bedroom with only his blanket and his teddy bear and sent to live in the basement. Every night Lydia would tie his hands behind his back and then toss him down the stairs. In the morning Lydia would wake him up by throwing a lit match onto the ground near his head. The match would catch the wood of the basement floor on fire. It would get real close to Ryo's head before he would wake up and put it out. Lydia loved playing with fire. Ryo had the burn marks on his arms to prove it.

One of the worst times Ryo remembered from his time spent with Lydia and his father was when Togoro brought home the bat. It was Ryo's birthday.

"Ryo come on out." Togoro yelled down the stairs

Ryo wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Over the past year his father was never the one to wake him up or tell him to come out of his room. It was always Lydia, so he could come and play one of her games with her. He wasn't sure he wanted to come out. In the basement he was safe. They wouldn't come down there. It was too dark and smelled like old blood and rotting food, but Ryo didn't mind. During his time spent down here he had come to recognize the smell as a place of safety. He didn't move towards the open door at the top of stairs. Instead he hugged his teddy bear closer to him.

"Ryo get up here now. We're not going to do anything to you. It's your birthday you know" Lydia was using her sweetest voice. This scared part of Ryo because Lydia only used that voice when they were going to play a very very painful game, but another part of him, the part that hoped that his parents would love him and treat him like before when his mother was alive, told him that it was ok. They weren't going to do anything to him. He ran up the stairs.

"Happy 9th Birthday Ryo!" yelled Togoro and Lydia together "Look what we got you for your birthday!" Ryo unwrapped the gift. It was a baseball bat. It was the only gift he had received since his mother had died. "Here let me show you how to use it." Togoro picked the bat up and showed Ryo the correct stance to use when swinging the bat.

The innocent part in Ryo had convinced him totally that his parents were going to love him now. It was going to be just like before. They weren't going to beat him anymore and then all his hope and innocence was crushed with one statement.

"Here stand right here and I'll show you how hard to swing the bat, if you want a homerun." Then there was pain. He was on his knees now and his father was continuing to hit him with bat and the whole time he was counting. Ryo didn't realize it until later but Togoro was doing the birthday countdown. He hit Ryo nine times and then gave him one more to grow on. Then they both laughed at Ryo calling him worthless and stupid.

Ryo didn't hear what it was they were calling him. He was trying to breathe. He knew that he had at least three broken ribs…

It wasn't long after school started back that Ryo finally was taken away.

"You have to wear the school uniform with the jacket on constantly to cover the bruises. We can't have anyone asking questions around here can we or they might find out what a terrible little boy you are and put you in jail." Lydia was saying as she dressed Ryo in his school uniform.

Ryo nodded his head. He knew that it was his fault that Lydia and his dad always had to hit him. If he would just be a good boy then they wouldn't have to hit him. He didn't want to go to jail. He was actually happy that Togoro and Lydia were willing to keep him and try to teach him wrong from right.

Ryo had heard his father and Lydia saying it so often that he just accepted it as true. None of the other boys in the neighborhood were hit or in trouble so often. It just made sense. It must be his fault.

"All right the bus is here. Get out of here."

It was about the second week of school that everything changed. The school was having required physicals because of some new disorder that showed itself in elementary students. When he found out that he was going to have to take off his jacket and uniform shirt, Ryo panicked. They were going to find out about him being a bad person and send him to jail. He tried to leave school but he got caught and was made to go back to the line waiting to get physicals. By some stroke of luck he managed to be last in line, but he wasn't able to get away. After his first attempt a teacher was watching him constantly. Ryo kept looking for a way out of this. He was fidgeting and watching the teacher constantly in the hope that he would look away for just a moment. He never did. It was his turn.

"Ok, let's see who is left. Oh yes a Mr. Ryo Sanada." Said the elderly school nurse. She found Ryo with his teacher escort sitting on one of the sofas in the waiting area. "Ah you must be the one that tried to sneak out aren't you." She didn't notice Ryo go pale "Well your next, so just come with me and will get this over with."

She took Ryo into the office and started taking notes for the doctor.

"Ok step up here and let's see how much you weigh." Ryo did as he was told, "Hmm, you're underweight. You need to make sure your parents start feeding you more." Ryo nodded numbly. He knew what was coming they were going to see the bruises and he was going to have to tell them that he was bad. They were going to send him to jail.

"Well I'll be right back with the doctor."

Ryo looked around desperately for a way out of this but he couldn't find one. The only way out was the way he came in and he knew that was still guarded by a teacher.

"Well if it isn't our little escape artist." The Doctor said cheerfully as he came into the room. "Ok Ryo I need you to take off your jacket and your shirt."

"No"

"No? Ryo I am not going to hurt you. It's just a routine test. Come on take them off."

"No"

"Ryo if you don't take them off I am going to have to take them off myself."

"NO" Ryo was yelling now and shaking like a leaf. He didn't want the doctor to see. No one was supposed to see. The doctor reached for him and Ryo lost it. He began kicking and screaming. He even tried to bite the doctor.

"Nurse get in here now!" the doctor yelled through the door "And bring a very light sedative." A few minutes later the nurse came in to a still screaming Ryo.

"Here doctor" she handed the sedative to the doctor. He looked at it just long enough to make sure that it wouldn't knock Ryo out, only make him feel sluggish and a little sleepy, before injecting it into the vein in Ryo's neck. The effect was almost immediate. Ryo stopped screaming and his kicks and punches were weak and slow moving. The doctor backed off for a minute to catch his breath before speaking.

"That kid must have some fear of doctors to be so afraid. You would have thought I was going to kill him or something. All right lets see what we've got." The doctor moved back towards Ryo and picked him up so that he was in a sitting position. "Ryo, think you can sit up like this for me?" at Ryo's slow nod the doctor went back to work unbuttoning Ryo's jacket. He grabbed Ryo's arm and started to pull the jacket off. "Oh my God! Nurse! Get child welfare on the phone and call the police." The nurse took one look at what the doctor had seen and rushed out the door. Ryo's whole arm was covered in layers of bruises ranging from the healing green ones to the new purple and black ones and, there were a few spots that looked like burns mixed in. They stopped just a little before his wrists. "No wonder you didn't want to take your jacket off."

The doctor finished taking the jacket off. It did not surprise the doctor that the other arm was in the same shape. "Ok Ryo. I am going to take your shirt off and then you can lie back down if you want. Ok?" Ryo nodded slowly meeting the doctor's eyes with his glazed ones. Not wanting to hurt Ryo more than necessary he got out his scissors and cut the shirt off. "Shit," Ryo's chest was covered in dark black bruises that stretched all the way across his chest, "Who would do this to a kid?"

"Birthday was a couple of weeks ago" Ryo slurred "I got a bat" He giggled a little.

Despite the words slurring together the Doctor caught what he said. He just didn't understand what he was talking about. What could his birthday and a bat have to do with anything? Then he looked at the shapes of the bruises. They were shaped like the side of a bat…

"Ryo you can lay down now if you want." Ryo nodded and obediently laid down and in a short period of time was asleep.

"Doctor, child welfare is here."

"Send them in."

"Doctor, my name is Sonya. I was called here because there was a possible case of child abuse?"

"Yes this boy over here." The doctor moved aside so that Sonya could see. "I had to give him a mild sedative in order to get him to let me take his coat and shirt off. So he can't answer questions right now."

"I see. Well did he tell you anything, anything at all?"

"The only thing I got from him before he fell asleep was that the bruises on his chest came from a bat that he received for his birthday."

Sonya wrote what the doctor had said down. "Well while he is asleep we can get the pictures taken and finish the physical exam. Usually I wouldn't do that but considering how much work it was just to let you take his shirt off, I don't think he will cooperate for the physical or his picture being taken over and over. I assume that you being a school doctor have already been trained in creating files on child welfare cases?"

"Yes I have"

"Well if you have any questions or the boy should wake up, I am going to be in the office just outside talking to the police about apprehending his parents and placing him in temporary police custody." With that said Sonya left the doctor to do his job and went to finish hers.

"Nurse Becklem I am going to need your assistance with this please." The doctor worked to finish undressing Ryo leaving him only in his boxers. Ryo's legs were in little better condition than his arms. It also became painfully obvious that Ryo was severely malnourished. "How much does his chart say he weighs?"

"He is a little over 40 pounds." Replied the nurse

"A boy his height should be closer to 60 than 40." The doctor made a notation on the welfare chart. "Ok nurse we have to get the pictures of injuries for the custody trial so I am going to hold him up in different positions and I want you to take the pictures." The nurse did as she was told and through all the movements and changes in position Ryo remained asleep. When he was through with the pictures he had the nurse leave so he could finish the physical.

He took out the voice recorder because this section had to be documented on paper and by recording. "Boy is nine years of age and has suffered obvious abuse to his chest, arms, and legs. It appears that the abuse has been going on for some time. The bruises on his arms, that are healing, appear to be deep tissue bruising which takes months to reach the state that they are now. Also he is malnourished, approximately 20 pounds underweight for a child his age and height. There are signs that he was at some point battered around the head. X-rays show old trauma to the brain and also broken ribs. There is no sign of sexual assault." The doctor finished his report.

When he looked up Ryo was whimpering in his sleep. "Ryo, wake up. Come on Ryo its just a bad dream…" The doctor stopped talking when he realized what it was that Ryo was saying.

"Thank you for teaching me my lesson. I don't want to go to jail. Thank you for punishing me instead of letting the police get me." Tears were beginning to stream down his face. The doctor reached over and gently picked Ryo up and held him.

"Ryo it's just a dream. Wake up now." The doctor was rocking Ryo back and forth in his arms in an attempt to comfort him. Slowly Ryo's eyes opened. "Ryo why didn't you want me to know that you were being abused?" It was something that had been bothering him ever since he had found out the truth about the boy.

"Lydia said that if anyone saw, the police would come and they would find out what a bad boy I am. They would take me to jail. I don't want to go to jail. Please don't let them take me." Ryo was crying now and holding onto the doctor's coat as if his life depended on it.

"Ryo it will be OK. The police are here but they're not here to take you to jail. They're here to talk to you and then they're going to get your parents. I don't have much more time with you and I know that this is going to hard for you to understand right now, but I want you to know that its not your fault. What your parents did to you had nothing to do with you and what they did was wrong. You might not believe me now but I want you to remember…"

The rest of that time in Ryo's life was a blur of confused images. People asking him questions, camera's taking pictures for newspapers, a trial, and then a foster home after foster home. Even now he didn't remember it clearly. It was to distorted and confused.

Ryo looked around the basement. It was just the way he remembered it. His few little toys sitting near his teddy bear and the empty food trays piled over in the corner. After remembering what had happened to him as a young boy he almost felt the same as he had before the voices started in his head. That was when he realized that there weren't voices. There was only one and it was small.

_Food hungry food. Human fear hide hide_

A mouse he realized. It was moving around in the old food trays. Ryo sat up. He knew the voice was a mouse. If he could figure that out then maybe he could control the voices.

"I could learn to control it and then I could go back to the guys. If they would take me back." Ryo had become so excited that he had started talking out loud. He realized now that even though he felt normal again, except for the mouse voice, that he had treated his friends terribly and now he was back at home with his parents. The last thought made him shudder. Now that he remembered, he knew that this wasn't the best place for him to be.

He heard a door open upstairs and heavy footsteps walking on the floor. He recognized those steps. His nine-year-old self made sure of that. His father was home…


	5. dreams and weakness

Chapter 5 Dreams and weakness

Rowen had just sat down at the table with everyone else. He almost wished he were still asleep, almost being the key word. To sleep meant he would have to have the same nightmare that had been repeating itself over and over since about a week after Ryo left. He was getting tired of them.

"Hey have any of you been having nightmares, lately?" Rowen said it like it was no big deal just a conversation topic. There was a long pause before anyone answered.

"Yeah I have." answered Kento. Affirmations came from everyone at the table.

"In my nightmare, I'm a little boy, but it's not me. It's someone else. It's kind of like playing the role of someone I don't know. Do you know what I mean?" Rowen looked around the table, everyone understood. "The boy throws his arms up to block something and he screams…" Rowen trailed off.

"Yeah and then it's the same boy but this time he is older and it's the same way Rowen said being inside the boys head. It's almost the same thing that happened when he was younger but this time he doesn't throw his arms up or scream. He just stands there." Finished Kento

"But sometimes the older boy is somewhere real dark and keeps trying to build walls in his head to block a mouse." Added Cye "It makes no sense. I don't think it means anything."

"But we're all having the same dream. It has to mean something…"

Ryo POV

He wasn't sure how long exactly he had been in the house. He knew it had to have been a while, some of the bruises on his arms were starting to heal or at least the first layer of them was. It was something he remembered from when he was younger. He had gotten better at controlling this new power that he had some how acquired. He had taught himself to block the mouse and had been experimenting with the thoughts and feelings of the mouse. He felt confident that he would be able to block the thoughts of his friends if they became too overwhelming.

_Mouse? Food I have Food Share?_

It was hard to communicate with the mouse. Its brain worked more on pictures than words and Ryo hadn't figured out exactly how to talk to it, but he could sometimes get his point across.

_Food Hungry Human safe unsafe has food_

Ryo smiled as the mouse came close to him. It stopped and looked at him and then moved around to his back to eat the little piece of bread Ryo had in his hands. Now that Ryo had his mind back he wasn't sure that his body was going to be able to do anything. His hands had been tied the entire time he had been home and he hadn't been allowed to eat much. He knew when he came he had lost a lot of weight. He couldn't remember how often he had eaten when he was with the Ronins. He had given up trying to make sense of anything from those last few months with them. He remembered punching Cye and throwing him into the water but that was only vaguely and it seemed like it wasn't him that did it.

After his first week here his mother had grown tired of keeping him to herself. She told his dad. After that he was left alone during the days and then at night when his dad got home the beatings would start again. Ryo was ashamed of himself. He was supposed to be the leader of the Ronins, the bearer of the Inferno Armor and the warrior who defeated Talpa, but he didn't have his armor orb with him and he had been without enough food for so long, he wasn't even sure that if he had it he would be able to use it. He had become so weak he couldn't even use his ability over fire without the aid of his orb. He could barely stand and walking for long distances was out of the question. He wasn't sure if he ever managed to get out of the house how far he would be able to get before he collapsed.

When his father got home, Ryo would drag himself upstairs where he was expected to take the punishment for anything that went wrong during the day. He didn't even have the strength anymore to try and defend himself. Even if his hands were untied he wasn't sure if he could bring them up to block a blow. He was just so tired.


	6. Birthday plans and escape

Chapter 6 Birthday plans and pain

"Sage, Isn't Ryo's birthday coming up?" Mia was trying to find away to invite Ryo back earlier than planned. It would be another week and half before it would have been a month since Ryo left. For some reason she couldn't help being worried about him. With the guys all having nightmares and Ryo missing from the group, how could she not worry some?

"I think its Sunday." Sage was catching on to what Mia was trying to do and since he wasn't all for Kento's plan to begin with he was more than happy to help Mia.

"Well I was thinking, we could throw a surprise party for Ryo's birthday. We can invite him back and not tell him it's a party for him…" Mia trailed off. She was busy planning now.

"Well, I think I will let you get to your planning. I am sure you'll come up with something great." Sage got up to leave

"Hey Sage think you could tell the guys for me?" Mia said with her most charming smile.

"I knew it. You were trying to get me to do the hard part weren't you?" Sage knew Mia was trying to get him to do something for her, which was why he had tried to escape before she could tell him what it was.

"Oh come on Sage, it can't be that bad!" Mia was laughing now at Sage's dismayed face

"If that's true then why are you trying to get out of it?" Sage was laughing too.

"Well thanks for your help!" Mia almost ran from the room in a rush to keep Sage from saying he didn't want to do it.

Sage figured that it would be easy to convince Rowen but Cye and Kento he wasn't so sure about, especially Kento. Since Rowen was going to be the easiest he decided to find him first. Maybe if he were lucky Rowen would come with him to help convince the other two. One could always hope.

Rowen was easy to find he was sitting in his room reading. After Ryo left Rowen started avoiding Kento and Cye. He had almost become as reclusive as Ryo had been. Sage knocked on the wall to let Rowen know he was there.

"What's up Sage?"

"Well Mia came up with an idea for us to invite Ryo back sooner."

" Ok what ever it is I'm all for it." With that Rowen picked his book up again.

"What you're not even going to ask what it is?"

"Nope cause I know that the only reason you're telling me now is so that I can help you tell the others. So no I don't want to hear it."

"Oh come on Rowen. You want Ryo back as much as I do."

"Oh don't pull that on me. If you want my help you're going to have to give me something." Sage sighed somehow he knew that was coming.

"Fine. You can have that CD you wanted and I'll give you back that book I stole."

"All right you've got a deal. Now all we have to do is find them"

"That will be easy."

Sage knew that Kento and Cye were at the lake. Even though it was still too cold for a normal person to swim, Cye always started swimming during late winter. The water was still cold but Cye didn't mind. As long as the water wasn't frozen he could be found swimming in it. Kento was being Cye's lifeguard in a way. It was actually Ryo's idea, after last winter when Cye was swimming and dived wrong. If Ryo hadn't walked by when he did Cye would have drowned.

Ryo had been walking through the woods and had just come back. He saw Cye jump and when Cye didn't come up he knew something was wrong. Ryo jumped in the lake to save him, even though the lake was just above freezing temperatures. Afterwards Ryo could barely move he was so weak. He spent a week in bed before he was able to move around the house. After that he made sure that whenever Cye went swimming there was always someone watching.

By now Sage and Rowen had reached the lake. To their surprise Kento and Cye were both sitting on the dock. Cye wasn't swimming; he didn't even look like he had been swimming.

"Sage, Rowen, just who we were getting ready to go find." Yelled a waving Kento

"Yeah. Me and Kento have something we want to discuss with ya'll." Added Cye

"Wow what a coincidence, we do too." Replied Rowen and then hastily added "But you can go first."

Kento looked at Rowen like he was some sort of foreign bug and just shook his head.

"Yeah well, anyway, we were thinking, I know we said that Ryo should stay away for a month but we think he should come back sooner. With all the nightmares and Ryo acting so weird when he left we are kind of worried about him. He could be in trouble or something." Said Kento

"That's…" started Sage

"I know we said a month, but I think I went over board a little when he threw me in the water. Yeah he did attack me, but he was sick. So despite what ever you think I still think that we should invite him back sooner." Said Cye

"That's…" Started Rowen

"I can't believe you two. He has been gone long enough, and even if he hasn't we can just give him a little space. At least then we would know he was ok. I can't believe that you don't want him to come back now." Yelled an irate Kento

"Yeah ya'll should be ashamed of yourselves." Finished Cye

"SHUT UP, if you two would let us finish what we were trying to tell you, this would be so much easier." Rowen stopped to glare at Kento and Cye just to make sure they would shut up. "We came out here to tell you that Mia thought it would be a good idea to throw a surprise party for Ryo's birthday. It's on Sunday. We think Ryo should come back too."

"Oh" said an embarrassed Cye

"Well on with the party plans." Yelled a now very happy Kento

Sage took a moment to marvel at how easily Kento could jump from one thing to the next, before turning to argue with Rowen about the validity of the deal they had made…

Ryo POV

Ryo sat up slowly. He was getting his birthday present later today. The bat had already been found and was sitting up against the wall. His birthday present was going to be early. His so-called parents had forgotten the exact date of his birthday. They remembered that it was sometime this week. They decided Friday was as good a day as any.

At this point though Ryo no longer felt the blows when they landed. He had discovered a way to block pain. For some reason, he felt that he had known this trick for a long time and had actually rediscovered it. He thought that maybe he had known how, since before his mother died. He could just barely remember her teaching him…

"IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP!" a small boy of four or five was screaming

"Shhh Ryo it will be ok." A young woman was holding Ryo, whose arm was bent in at an odd angle. "Don't cry." Still the young Ryo cried and whimpered for his mom to help. "Ryo I want you to listen to me, I am going to teach you something but you have to stop crying first." she said it softly so that Ryo would have to quiet down in order to hear what she was saying.

Her trick worked, Ryo stopped crying and was now only hiccupping.

"Ok Ryo. Remember the trance that the elder was working on teaching you?" at Ryo's small nod she continued, "I want you to try and do that now. Do you think you can do it for mommy?" Ryo nodded and closed his eyes. Ryo's small body went limp in her arms "Good boy, I knew you could do it." The woman placed her hand on Ryo's head. She closed her eyes and her hand began to glow. When she finished, Ryo opened his eyes. "Do you think you can remember what I just showed you how to do?" Ryo sleepily nodded his head.

"It doesn't hurt anymore. Thank you mommy" Ryo was slowly drifting to sleep but before he was totally asleep he thought he heard the elder and his mom talking.

"You showed him the pain control technique and he learned it? And at such a young age too. He shouldn't have been able to." It was the elder's gruff voice

"Yes I know, but I knew he could do it. I sense great power in him."

"Well, we have always known that Ryo is special. He learns quickly and has already surpassed many of the children twice his age. When his powers finally manifest he will be quite strong. He may even become stronger than me." Then there was laughter. Ryo fell asleep.

Ryo was startled out of his memories by a sound upstairs, his father's footsteps. For a moment a wave of fear passed over him but he quickly suppressed it. He needed his mind to be clear. Tonight was going to be the biggest test on his control. He was going to try and convince them to untie his hands before they threw him back down the stairs and leave the door unlocked. He had already thought about getting them to forget about his birthday present but he wasn't sure he could do that. If he couldn't then he would still be stuck in the basement with his hands tied behind his back. At least this way he could try and escape.

"Ryo it's time for your present." It was Lydia calling him in a singsong voice. Ryo felt an old fear rising inside him. It was the fear of a little boy who still remembered. Ryo worked to block it. He needed to concentrate.

It took him a few tries to stand up and almost all his energy to climb the stairs without falling.

"Took you long enough boy. I was thinking I was going to have to come down there and get you." Togoro was standing in front of him with the bat. "You know what to do." Ryo moved to stand directly in front of Togoro. "Happy Birthday son." Togoro swung the bat

Ryo barely felt the bat hitting him. He was busy. He was reaching out trying to touch Lydia's mind. When he did he almost recoiled in pain. Her mind was so full of evil, but he tried again and this time he was prepared. Her thoughts began filling his mind.

_That's it hit him harder. I wish that boy would just die. He looks just like his stupid mother. Everyone thought she was special and Ryo's just like her._

They didn't overwhelm him this time. He was prepared for them and accepted them. He didn't fight them like he had when he was with the Ronins. He knew now that wasn't the way to do it. Now her mind was blank and was ready to accept his suggestion.

_Tonight when you lock me up you want to leave my hands untied. You feel sorry for me and leave my hands untied._

He knew that tonight she would forget to tie his hands. He hadn't thought it was going to be this easy but it was still taking a lot out of him. He was beginning to feel the bat again. He only had another five hits to go before he would be thrown back in the basement. He had to hurry and find Togoro's mind. He didn't recoil at the evil he found there. He was already expecting it.

_If he had never been born my wife would still be alive. We would never have left the city in the first place. Gifted my ass. DIE BOY._

Ryo accepted the thoughts again. He could feel himself weakening. The pain was getting worse.

_Leave the door unlocked. I am not strong enough to do anything. Leave the door unlocked_.

Ryo heard his father finish the countdown and he felt Lydia pulling him roughly to his feet. He didn't remember falling to his knees. He felt Togoro pull him towards the basement and felt himself falling. Before he hit the ground he had one thought "She left my hands untied." Then there was blackness.


	7. Dreams and escape

Chapter 7 Dreams and escape

It was Saturday and everyone, but Mia and Yulie, were sitting in the living room. Some point Friday night they had all woke up feeling that something was terribly wrong. They weren't sure what it was. Kento was of the opinion that it had something do with Talpa. Sage thought that it might have had something to do with Ryo and Cye agreed. Rowen just wasn't sure what he thought. None of them could go back to sleep. They had finished most of the party preparations just to pass the time and take their minds off the strange feeling that something was wrong. It took them awhile to notice that something was missing.

It had actually been Kento who noticed it. Whiteblaze had disappeared and so had Ryo's travel bag and armor orb. The last anyone had seen him was early Friday afternoon and then he just disappeared. This is what had convinced Cye that whatever was wrong had to do with Ryo. Cye knew that Whiteblaze was a strange tiger. He always seemed to know when Ryo needed him. Cye had wanted to talk to Ryo about it but had never found the right moment to bring it up. He knew that Sage's reasoning for thinking that it was Ryo had been because of his gift, but even he wasn't a hundred percent for sure.

"If Ryo doesn't come tomorrow we are going to have to go to his house and look for him." Cye didn't even have to look up to see who it was that was talking. Rowen had only said this twenty times since he woke up.

"How do we know that he is even at his house? I mean its not like he told us anything." This would be Kento. Cye had heard this conversation already, and more than once.

"He is at his house. We all know it. We don't know how but we all do. So stop repeating this stupid conversation. I'm getting tired of it." And that would be Sage. Cye couldn't help but think that for someone who was tired of the conversation he was quite willing to finish it every time it started.

"I just hope Ryo is alright." This would be Rowen again. Cye just rolled his eyes. He just wanted Ryo to come back, even if he wasn't any better than before, it would be better than this constant worry…

Ryo POV

Ryo was slowly pulling himself back to consciousness. He didn't know how much time had passed since he had blacked out, but it felt like a long time. He smiled when he remembered that his hands were untied and could be moved again. Maybe that meant that the door was unlocked as well. He went stand up and the pain reminded him what had caused him to black out in the first place. He lifted his shirt to look and see how bad the damage was, what he saw didn't surprise him. His chest was covered in black bruises and he knew that he had a few cracked or broken ribs, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't live with.

Ryo slowly stood up. His arm went reflexively to protect his ribs and Ryo began his way up the stairs. He had to stop a few times to catch his breath. His ribs were causing him to take very small breaths. The light that was coming under the door showed it to be early afternoon. He almost laughed at his good luck. Lydia wasn't going to be home for another two hours. If he had been unconscious any longer he would have missed his chance. All that was left was to see if the door was unlocked.

This part was what worried Ryo because he couldn't remember if he had finished with his dad or not. The door could still be locked. He slowly reached out his hand and turned the knob. It opened. Ryo was going to escape.

He wasn't real sure what he was going to do now that he was free. He didn't know how he was going to get back to Mia's house. He didn't have any money for a bus ticket and he didn't think anyone was going to buy his ticket this time.

"One step at a time. First I got to get out of the house." Ryo said out loud to himself.

He moved quietly through the house, even though he knew that there was nobody in it. He felt safer being quiet. He was almost to the front door when he heard the voice.

_Ryo? Can you hear me?_

He didn't recognize this voice. It had a growlish sound to it but it felt familiar.

_Who are you? How did you get in my head?_

_Ahh so you have finally awakened. Think Ryo. You know who I am._

Ryo knew that he should know who the voice belonged too. He remembered hearing it when he was younger and having bad dreams. The voice had comforted him. But who was it?

_Not who Ryo. Think_

Ryo recognized it now. The voice in his dreams hadn't started till sometime after Whiteblaze had come.

_Whiteblaze is that you?_

_Yes Ryo._

_How can you talk to me like this? Where did you come from? Why are you here?_

_I'll answer your questions later. Right now you need to get out of this house. I'll give you directions to where I am. Hurry Ryo you don't have much time._

Ryo nodded his head, not even thinking about the fact that Whiteblaze couldn't see the motion. He left the house and began following Whiteblazes instructions. They led him to a nearby park that ran into a forest area. By the time Ryo reached the forest he had used all of his energy, but he tried to keep going anyway. He made it a few more steps before collapsing.

"Whiteblaze?" Ryo wasn't sure if he had said it out loud or using his mind. He was too tired to tell.

_Don't worry Ryo. I'll come the rest of the way._

Ryo tried to tell him thank you but he wasn't sure if it had gotten through. He could feel himself falling asleep.

_Ryo, wake up._ Ryo just moaned and rolled over._ Come on Ryo I need you to wake up. You can sleep later._ Ryo barely opened his eyes.

"Whiteblaze that you?"

_Yes Ryo. I need you to get on my back. I'll take you the rest of the way. But you have to get on my back. I don't want to have to drag you._

Ryo forced himself to stand. He felt worse than he had ever felt in his life. Everything hurt. He tried to walk to Whiteblaze and get on like he had so many times before but his legs just wouldn't work. He felt himself falling and then he felt himself fall onto Whiteblaze. He was asleep again in minutes.

_Ryo wake up we're here_

Ryo opened his eyes. He felt better than he had earlier now that he had slept some and judging by the sun he had slept most of the afternoon. He looked around trying to figure out where they were. There was a small pool next to him, which on closer inspection revealed itself to be a hot spring. Trees surrounded him so he knew that he had to be deep in the forest. What caught his eye next was a red bag leaning against a tree. It was his travel bag. He always kept one filled with a set of clothes, some food, and bath items.

"Why did you bring me here and how did my bag get here?"

_I brought your bag. I knew you would need it. Your armor orb is in there as well. As to why I brought you here, that should be obvious. You need hot water for a bath._

"I could use a bath. I haven't had one since I left"

_I noticed._

"Whiteblaze you're a smart ass you know." With that Ryo walked over and got his bag. He started to take off his shirt when he heard a roar behind him.

_Who did this Ryo? Who attacked you?_

Ryo could feel the anger behind Whiteblaze's thoughts. His head was starting to hurt again. "My dad and Lydia. They did this before and I…"

_They did this to you. That was not supposed to happen. He…_

Whiteblaze was yelling inside Ryo's head and roaring out load he was so angry with Togoro and Lydia. Suddenly he stopped and looked at Ryo. Ryo eyes were glazed and he was shaking. Whiteblaze's acute hearing could just make out that Ryo was saying something.

"Please Whiteblaze stop you're hurting me. Stop."

Whiteblaze shook himself in an effort to calm down before speaking again to Ryo.

_I'm sorry Ryo I didn't mean to hurt you. I forgot that your more sensitive than I am._

Ryo stopped shaking and his eyes returned to normal. He still stood there trying to clear his head for a few moments more, before talking to Whiteblaze.

"What do you mean that it wasn't supposed to be this way?"

_Go take your bath and I'll answer all your questions later. Give me some more time to calm down. If you need me, just call._

Ryo nodded his head and stripped down to his boxers. He could feel Whiteblazes anger building again as he saw what condition Ryo was in. Apparently Whiteblaze realized that Ryo could sense him because he stood up and began walking into the forest.

Ryo turned and went into the water.

It was hot water, very hot water. Ryo was glad though. Cold water always had a way of drawing out all his strength. If he stayed in hot water to long it would do the same. Water and fire just don't mix that well. Ryo sank into the water and allowed the water to loosen all of his muscles. After relaxing for a while he cleaned himself off and got out of the pool. It was only then that he realized how long he had been in the water. It was almost dark. The sun was setting behind the trees. Whiteblaze still was not back.

Ryo grabbed his bag and started looking through it. He thought that there might have been a first aid kit in the bag somewhere and he was right. It was a small one but it had everything he needed. Ryo set about wrapping his ribs. It would have been easier if he had some help, but since no one else was there he did his best to do it on his own. It wasn't a great job but it would do for now. He thought he felt someone behind him watching him.

Ryo turned around to find that it was only Whiteblaze. Whiteblaze had killed a few rabbits as well.

_I brought you something to eat. I figured you would be hungry._

Ryo thanked him and hungrily grabbed the rabbits. He dug through his bag until he had his skinning knife and started skinning them.

_You don't look like you have eaten a good meal since before you left._

"I haven't. I don't think I have eaten a good meal since before this gift of mine showed up." Ryo didn't stop his work of preparing the rabbits. He hadn't realized how desperately hungry he was until he had seen the rabbits. He grabbed his orb and held his hand over the rabbits. Ryo and the rabbits glowed red for a few seconds and when the glow disappeared the rabbits were cooked.

_They would have been better if you let them cook slowly in a fire instead of roasting them from the inside out._

"Oh shut up, I'm hungry." Ryo ate the two rabbits like they were the best things he had ever had. He didn't even talk to Whiteblaze until after he had finished. He was still hungry but not as hungry as before. He knew that if he was going to talk to Whiteblaze he was going to have to do it fast. He could feel sleep pulling at him already.

"Whiteblaze what did you mean that this was not supposed to happen?"

_Let me start in the beginning Ryo. That away you will understand everything. One of your first questions was where I came from. I am going to answer that first. I come from the same place you do. You don't remember much from your time spent in the mountains with what was left of your tribe, but I have seen in the little that you do remember that you know about the elder. When you were born the elder knew that you had great power. He could sense a pureness in your soul that very few have. He told your mother and it was agreed that she would stay in the mountain village so that you could receive training._

_The elder himself trained you, because you learned things so quickly that you could not stay in classes with children your age. You would have remained under his tutelage until you were eighteen but your mother's death changed things. Your father convinced the elder that the best thing for you was a move to the city. He said it was so you could get away from the memory of your mother's death. The elder agreed on two conditions: The house that you were moved into had to have a basement that he could prepare for when your powers manifested. He placed a seal in the basement that would keep the thoughts of others from reaching you while your father trained you. The other condition was that when you turned ten a legendary tiger, that could talk to you, be allowed to bond with you. I am that Tiger Ryo._

Ryo had sat quietly and listened to Whiteblaze. He thought he understood what Whiteblaze was saying and even believed it. Sleep was pulling at him even stronger now but he refused to sleep. Not until he had heard the entire story.

_I came to you when you were ten. The elder had chosen me to become your companion. I was given instructions on what I was to do for you. At Ryo's inquisitive look he added I cannot tell you all that he said at this moment. Many of things were for when you are older. I was told that you would have already developed your telepathic powers or at least would be a very strong empath. I was sent to find you. You were not at the house that the elder said you should be. I had to look for you. I finally found you on a farm. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that you did not have your powers at all and that you had actually built a wall around them to keep them from developing. You did not make my job easy for me Ryo._

Ryo looked at the ground sheepishly until he felt Whiteblaze laughing in his head. It was strange hearing the tiger laugh. Like his voice, it sounded like growling but also laughter at the same time. Ryo could feel his eyes trying to close.

Ryo don't go to sleep yet, there will be plenty of time for that later. Whiteblaze waited until he saw Ryo's eyes open again before continuing. _When your powers did start developing I was to make sure that you were at your house with your father. When I realized that you were beginning to hear the other Ronins' thoughts, I had to make sure that you went back home. I affected how they felt. I made sure that everyone felt angry towards you and ignored the signs that said something was wrong with you. When Cye started yelling at you I told him that he wanted you to leave and I kept the rest of the Ronins from trying to find you._

Ryo was awake now. He could feel his anger building. How could Whiteblaze do that? Make his friends want him to leave all so he would go back to his abusive father. Everything that had happened was all Whiteblaze's fault. Something wet dropped onto his hand, a tear. His tear. Ryo was crying.

_Ryo please understand I didn't know about your parents. I didn't know what they would do. When I did what I did, I was doing it for you. I thought in the end I was helping you. Please Ryo, please say that you forgive me?_

Ryo could feel the guilt behind Whiteblaze's words. He knew that Whiteblaze hadn't known what would happen. He knew he would forgive Whiteblaze.

"I don't blame you Whiteblaze. It's just so much has happened to me and now this I…I…" Ryo was really crying now. Memories of everything that had happened were rushing through his mind. Whiteblaze was seeing them too. Whiteblaze stood up and moved closer to Ryo. Ryo instinctively buried his head into Whiteblaze's fur. He heard in his head the same comforting voice he had heard when he was younger. Ryo remained this way until he finally fell asleep.

_Wake up Ryo, its morning. We have a long way to go if we are going to get to Mia's in time._

Whiteblaze was nudging Ryo with his nose. Ryo had fallen asleep using him as a pillow the night before. Ryo wasn't waking up. Whiteblaze gave up trying to wake him up by nudging him and stood up. As soon as Ryo hit the ground he jumped up looking around trying to figure out what had happened. He could feel Whiteblaze laughing at him.

"What did you do that for?" Ryo was not happy at having been woken up so suddenly.

_You wouldn't wake up and we need to get going if we are going to be at Mia's in time._

"What do you mean be at Mia's in time? What's going on?" Ryo was trying to ignore the laughter that was still echoing in his head.

_I can't tell you. It's a secret. Ryo glared at him but Whiteblaze still refused to tell him. We're going to be late if you don't stop arguing with me. Ryo stopped arguing out loud but Whiteblaze could still feel the Ryo's indignation at him keeping a secret. You're going to have to ride. I don't think we could make it otherwise._ Ryo wasn't happy about this arrangement but after Whiteblaze's next statement Ryo was perfectly happy to ride. _You could sleep while you ride. I won't let you fall. It's either that or your going to have to walk the whole way._

Ryo got on and was asleep before they had traveled a mile.


	8. Birthday reunion and leavings

Chapter 8 Birthday reunion and leavings

"Kento stop fidgeting. He'll be here any minute." Mia was getting aggravated with Kento's constant movement. First he had paced around the room and then he had started tapping his foot against the wall. Now he was busy picking at a string that was hanging off the curtain. There was only so much Mia could take.

"Awww, Mia I'm just worried about Ryo. What if he doesn't come?" Kento had been whining like this ever since that morning.

"Kento, we've told you a million times he is going to come. He still has another five minutes to get here before he is late, so just calm down." Cye was getting just as annoyed with Kento as Mia. They had all been short tempered today. Everyone was worried about Ryo.

"Guys look I think I see Whiteblaze!" Rowen was acting as look out for Ryo. When he said that everyone ran to the door to see if it was Whiteblaze. "I think I see Ryo." Everyone scrambled to find hiding places. They were planning on jumping out when Ryo reached the edge of the porch and yell surprise.

Whiteblaze knew that everyone was hiding in an attempt to surprise Ryo, but he knew it wasn't going to work. Ryo was still asleep and Whiteblaze was having trouble getting him to wake up. He could tell that Ryo was almost awake but not quite. There was nothing he could do about it. He kept walking until he had reached the edge of the porch. Maybe when they yelled surprise Ryo would wake up.

"SURPRI…" everyone stopped mid surprise when they saw Ryo. He was still sleeping on top of Whiteblaze. Whiteblaze turned his head until he was nudging Ryo's shoulder with his nose.

You're missing the surprise. I know you can hear me. You're scaring your friends.

Ryo opened his eyes and sat up. Everyone was standing on the porch just staring at him.

"Um Hi?" Ryo wasn't sure what to expect after everything that had happened.

"Surprise Ryo. Happy Birthday. We threw you a party." Mia was the first to recover from seeing Ryo. Everyone had thought that Ryo was unconscious or hurt badly when he hadn't woke up.

"Yeah happy birthday. Welcome back." Various greetings from all of the Ronins could be heard.

Ryo got down off of Whiteblaze and was hit with the most wonderful smell he could think of at the moment. "Is Cye making Hamburgers? Cause I am really hungry."

That seemed to break the awkwardness of the reunion. Soon Kento had started a game of soccer and everyone but Ryo was playing. He didn't want to risk making his ribs worse and he knew that he wouldn't make it through a whole game of soccer. He sat down at one of the picnic tables that had been set up for the occasion and soon was asleep.

"Hey Sage? You don't think Ryo still holds a grudge against us for making him leave do you?" Kento was looking curiously over at Ryo

"I don't know Kento."

"Do you think that he's sick or something? He was sleeping when he got here and then he refused to play soccer so he could sleep. He must be sick." Kento was still looking over at Ryo.

"I don't know Kento." Sage was getting tired of Kento asking him all these questions, like he was somehow supposed to know what was happening with Ryo.

"Well couldn't you just use that empath thing that you have and see what's wrong?"

"Will it shut you up if I do?" At Kento's nod, Sage opened himself to his gift and tried to see what he could feel from Ryo. When he reached Ryo's mind he was surprised to find that it was protected by strong shields, some of them were stronger than even he could build. All that Sage was able to sense from him was that he felt safe enough to sleep now that he was back with his friends.

"Well did you find out anything?" Sage was taken out of his probing by Kento's impatience.

"All I found out was that Ryo feels safe and that is why he is sleeping now." Sage didn't say anything about the shields. He wasn't sure what to make of them. Most normal people couldn't build shields like that, only people with gifts like his could normally.

"Ryo couldn't be could he?"

Ryo woke from his sleep when he felt someone was standing behind him. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep but at some point while he was sleeping he lowered some of the shields that blocked thoughts. He didn't just feel the person standing behind him he could hear what they were thinking too. It was Rowen. Ryo kept his eyes shut. He didn't want Rowen to know he was awake just yet. He could feel the worry coming off of him in waves.

Rowen was still worried that something was wrong with Ryo. He wanted to wake Ryo up and ask him if he was ok but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Rowen was beating himself up about not looking for Ryo earlier. Ryo could tell that they all were. He could feel their worry and their anxiety that there might still be something wrong with him. He couldn't take it anymore and so he stopped pretending to sleep and opened his eyes.

"Hey Rowen. Did you need something?"

Rowen just stared at Ryo's back. He had thought Ryo was asleep but he must not have been. Ryo must have seen Rowen come up behind him because he hadn't turned around to look to see who was behind him.

"I just wanted to make sure you were ok. You've been gone all this time and now that you're back all you've done is sleep. You're not still sick are you?"

"I'm not sick Rowen and you can tell the guys if you want. I'm just tired. I didn't get much sleep while I was gone." Ryo smiled like there was some secret joke hidden within what he had said that Rowen just didn't get.

"Why didn't you sleep while you were with your dad? Having to much fun or something?" Rowen still felt like something had happened to Ryo and everything wasn't ok yet. He felt that it had to have something to do with his dad.

"Yeah something like that." Ryo didn't want to say anything else about the subject, but he was still curious about one thing. "How did you know that I was at my dad's house?"

Rowen blushed at this. He wasn't real sure what he should tell Ryo or how Ryo would react when he heard that Yulie had gone through his stuff.

"Well…" Rowen trailed off. He wasn't going to tell Ryo but Ryo kept looking at him with this expectant look on his face and he didn't want to make Ryo mad by not telling him. "Yulie went through your things trying to find something of his you had. He found an address book that had dad written next to one of the addresses. That was how we knew where to send the invitation to the party."

"You sent an invitation to my house?" Rowen didn't answer. He had turned to look at Cye who was yelling that the hamburgers were done and that he needed help getting the food to the table. Rowen left to help before Kento got to them first. If he had stayed he might have seen Ryo go pale and begin to shake. Ryo realized that this meant that his parents now knew how to find him here. He wasn't safe here anymore. Ryo felt all the happiness he had felt at leaving his house and his parents and getting back to his friends and safety disappear like a popped balloon.

Sage looked up suddenly and looked towards Ryo. Something had changed. Before he didn't feel much from Ryo but he could still feel something. Now he just felt nothing. It was like Ryo had disappeared behind an impenetrable wall. Something had happened after Rowen had talked to him. Something bad to have caused this kind of reaction but Sage just couldn't figure out what it could have been. Sage picked up some of the food and headed back to the table with everyone else.

Everyone sat down after setting the table. Ryo just sat at the picnic table like he couldn't see everyone placing food on the table around him. He didn't offer to help. They looked at Ryo. His eyes were glazed and he was staring straight ahead. Everyone felt their heart sink. Ryo wasn't better.

Ryo what happened? You've got to come out of the trance. You're not in trouble. Ryo you're scaring your friends.

Ryo shook himself. To everyone watching it looked like he was coming out of a daydream and then immediately reentered it. His eyes had cleared for a moment but then had glazed again almost as quickly. Ryo had to talk to Whiteblaze and tell him what had happened.

Whiteblaze, they sent an invitation to my house. They can find me now. I'm not safe here anymore.

It will be ok. I'll keep a look out for them while you're here. Tell the other Ronins. I'm sure they will understand and help.

NO I can't do that. They can't know. They can't know about any of it. Not my parents or my new powers I don't want them to know.

Your going to have to tell them sometime you know.

Ryo could feel Whiteblaze move farther away to start patrolling and to keep a look out for Ryo's parents. He felt safer then, but only a little. He looked up and realized that everyone was staring at him and no one was eating.

"Are we just going to stare or are we going to eat?" Ryo started piling food onto his plate.

After that dinner was almost like normal. Everyone told stories about what had been going on and Ryo made up a few about what he had been doing when asked. Everyone laughed together and told jokes. It was just like old times. Ryo only phased out once during the entire time but no one really noticed. Kento made jokes about how much Ryo was eating. Ryo had eaten more than Kento already and was still eating. Cye got up and headed towards the grill. Ryo had eaten all the extra food he had made to cover Kento's huge appetite. They were going to need more food.

"Then Cye, he pushed Kento, and they knocked over a whole row of canned vegetables. You should have seen the managers face Ryo." Rowen was trying not to laugh the whole time he was telling this story.

"Oh come on it wasn't my fault, really. If Cye hadn't pushed me it never would have happened." Kento was laughing now as well.

"Guys quiet. There's something wrong with Ryo." Sage hadn't been listening to the conversation but had been watching Ryo. When Cye had gotten up Ryo's eyes had lost focus. He was staring straight ahead and was starting to rock back and forth. Everyone was now watching Ryo as he kept rocking and was slowly starting to shake.

"What's wrong with him?" No one answered. They just watched Ryo. Sage reached out to touch Ryo's shoulder but before he touched him Ryo stood up and screamed.

"**CYE!**" With that Ryo took off running towards Cye and the grill, with the rest of the Ronins running after him. He reached Cye and pushed him backwards from the grill and into the side of the porch. Then he turned to the grill just as there was an explosion of fire. He reached into the flames and tried to keep it from actually causing an explosion. He had to absorb the flame and without his armor on to protect his hands from the heat. He knew that they were going to burn. He could feel them starting to burn already, but still he worked to control the flame. He felt the fire getting smaller and soon it was no longer there. He sighed with relief. He went to check on Cye, who was now surrounded by the rest of the Ronins. Ryo realized with a jolt of guilt that when he pushed Cye he had knocked him unconscious.

Kento stood up and angrily faced Ryo. Slowly Sage and Rowen followed suit. They were all glaring angrily at Ryo. Ryo was loosing his control again. Their anger was overwhelming his defenses and he didn't understand what they were mad about. He had knocked Cye out but not on purpose. If he hadn't Cye would have been caught in the explosion. Ryo was fighting to keep the little bit of control he had left.

"What did you do that for?" Kento was angrily yelling "Do you not like Cye or something? First you attack him in the woods and now this." Kento was walking menacingly towards Ryo.

"We invited you back because we wanted to help you. We thought that you would be safer here with us and you attacked him again." Rowen was closing in on Ryo as well.

"I don't know what's wrong with you Ryo, none of us do, but you can't come back here and just start attacking people." Sage moved up to surround Ryo as well.

Ryo was backing a way from them. He had lost all control. He was no longer aware of the people around him or what they were saying. He wasn't even sure if he knew these people that were surrounding him. All he could feel was an overwhelming anger. His body was instinctively backing away from what it felt was an obvious danger. Ryo didn't even see the hands that pushed him backwards. He lost his balance and fell.

"JUST LEAVE RYO." All three Ronins said at the same time.

Ryo looked up at them from the ground and felt like he was dieing. He was pulling deeper and deeper inside of himself trying to hide from what they were saying. He was didn't want to accept that the security that he had wanted so badly was disappearing. A foot came from somewhere and kicked him in the stomach. Pain shot through him. Whoever had kicked him had hit one of the injured ribs. Ryo no longer had any conscious thought; he was running on instinct and autopilot. He was in danger, so he reacted. He ran. He ran away from the only home he had ever truly known and into the woods. He felt himself calling Whiteblaze and crying, but that was all. He didn't feel the burns on his hands or the briars catching on his clothes. Everything seemed far away. He kept running.


	9. video and cold sleep

Chapter 9 video and cold sleep

Everyone looked up as Sage and Mia came into the room. It had been a few hours since the incident with Ryo and Cye. Cye still hadn't woken up.

"He'll be ok. He just has a slight concussion. He'll be fine." Mia had told them this twice already but they still acted like they hadn't heard it every time she told them.

"Looks like a cold front is moving in to night and with it some rain. Everyone needs to stay indoors and bring in outside pets. It's going to be chilly folks.." Sage reached over and turned off the T.V. No one was really watching it anyway. Everyone was still trying to figure out what had happened. Why had Ryo attacked Cye and then started that fire. It didn't make any sense to any of them.

Mia interrupted everyone's silent thoughts. She had just remembered something that had come in the mail the day before. It was a small box. She hadn't really paid any attention to it because everyone was so busy finishing setting up for the party. She just assumed that is was a book for Rowen.

"Rowen I think a package came for you yesterday. It must be some book you ordered." Mia wasn't really sure why all of a sudden she felt that the package was very important.

"I didn't order any books. I wonder who the package is for then?" Rowen also felt that there was something very important about the package. It seemed that everyone now shared this feeling. Mia went to go find it.

"I think this package is important." Kento was sitting back down on the couch with a snack from the kitchen. Everyone just rolled their eyes at him. Sage didn't, he was thinking about the package and the sudden feeling of importance everyone had. He thought he had heard a voice in his head telling him that there was a package that would help explain some things. It was a growling sort of voice that Sage didn't recognize.

"Here it is. I found it." Mia came back into the room holding the small box. Rowen took the box and read out loud whom it was addressed to.

"It says that it is for the friends of Ryo Sanada." Everyone looked at each other as Rowen began to open the package. Everyone leaned forwards trying to see what was inside. There was a videotape that looked to be from a security camera, a voice recorder with a tape in it, and a letter. Rowen took the letter out first and read it.

"Dear friends of Ryo. The items that I am sending with this letter are to help explain some things about Ryo. Ryo has been one of my main concerns as he grew because of the mental barriers he has placed around some rather awful memories. I am afraid that when Ryo finally does remember these memories he will need the support of his friends. I wouldn't normally release confidential information on my patients to friends without the patient's knowledge but under the circumstances I thought this was best. On Ryo's last visit a year and a half ago he told me about all of you and how all of you were becoming like a family for him. I was so glad to hear this. Ryo has lost so many families during his lifetime. When a fellow doctor informed me that all of you had moved in together I realized that I could trust you with this information. Ryo will remember and when he does I want everyone to be ready to support him." Rowen looked up at everyone's confused faces. "It's not signed."

"Do any of you remember Ryo seeing a doctor around the time you first met?" asked Mia

"I don't remember him seeing a doctor exactly. I remember him disappearing one day without any explanation and going down town. That's the only time I remember that he could have gone to this doctor. The rest of the time we were together." Sage looked around to see if anyone else remembered. No one else said anything.

"I wonder what could have been so bad that Ryo would have forced himself to forget and then have to see a doctor about it for so long." Kento had forgotten how mad he had been at Ryo only a few moments ago and was now trying to figure out what could have happened to Ryo. Everyone was.

"I think we should watch the tape first the date on it is older that the one on the tape recorder." Rowen put tape in the VCR and hit play.

At first it was just a line of children that all looked to be around nine or ten standing in line in a school office. Then a door at the back of the room opened and a teacher walked in pulling a raven-haired young boy who was struggling with all his might to get away. They couldn't see the boy's face yet because he was facing away from the camera. The teacher bent down so that he was eye level with the boy and said something that the camera couldn't pick up but it was obvious that whatever it was it wasn't good.

"I know how that kid must feel, getting in trouble with a teacher and then being yelled at in front of everyone." Kento had been in trouble enough in his life to know. He was going to keep talking when the boy turned around and they saw his face. "That's Ryo." Kento said with an amazed voice.

Even though he was much younger they could still tell that it was Ryo. The eyes were the same for one and he had that same scared haunted look on his face that he had when the Ronins had first met him. They watched as Ryo fidgeted in line. He kept looking anxiously at the disappearing line and then at the teacher who was guarding the door. They could tell after knowing him for so many years that he was scared and was getting desperate. The line was almost gone. They watched as the last person went in and Ryo was left alone in the waiting room with the teacher. The teacher sat down on the sofa and called Ryo to come and sit with him. Ryo cringed when the nurse came out and asked him to come into the back.

They listened as the nurse talked to Ryo about how small he was. They expected him to say something back. Ryo was always easily angered when someone talked about his size. To their surprise Ryo only nodded his head and followed the nurse into the doctors office. They saw Ryo begin to look like he was going to bolt and start looking for a way out.

"What could be scaring him so much? It looks just like that examination we all had to have when we were in elementary school. It was nothing serious." No one answered Rowen because just then the doctor came into the room.

They could hear the doctor telling Ryo to take off his jacket and shirt. They heard Ryo scream his refusal and start to shake. Then Ryo went nuts and started attacking the doctor trying to get his jacket off.

"Man something must be seriously wrong with Ryo for him to be attacking the doctor." Kento watched as the nurse came in with the sedative. They all gasped when they saw what the doctor saw hidden under Ryo's jacket. No one talked now; they were all watching the doctor and Ryo's tiny form. They watched Ryo lay down and the doctor pull out a pair of scissors to cut the shirt off. Mia started crying at what they saw. Black bruises covering Ryo's small chest.

"Ryo was abused and he didn't tell us."

"Kento he doesn't remember. He couldn't tell us." Sage answered not even looking away from the screen.

Mia got up and said she was going to go check on Cye. She couldn't stand to watch any longer. The camera picked up Ryo's answer a question that the doctor had asked.

"Birthday was a couple of weeks ago" Ryo slurred "I got a bat" He giggled a little. They all realized the same thing the doctor did. The bruises were shaped like the side of a bat. Kento almost left when the doctor had started the physical and they saw how small and skinny Ryo was. His legs and arms were like sticks. There wasn't any fat or muscle on them it was only skin and bone. They could see his ribs and every vertebrae of his back. Rowen reached towards the VCR and fast-forwarded he couldn't stand to see Ryo like that either. Rowen stopped the tape when the doctor picked Ryo up and was holding him. They listened to the doctor telling Ryo that it wasn't his fault. The tape ended soon after that. No one moved to turn off the T.V. or stop the tape. For a few minutes no one talked.

"I can't believe that his parents would hit him with a bat, and on his birthday. My father knocked me around some but never like that." Everyone looked at Rowen. They all knew that Rowen had a bad past. He would show up to school with bruises and say he had fallen down the stairs or ran into things but he didn't fool his friends for long. "I just realized that it was Ryo who first confronted me about those bruises that I kept showing up with. Kento already knew of course but that was because we had known each other long before we met all of you."

"Do you remember just after we met Ryo, he was quiet and just followed us around? Who would have thought that he would become our leader? He has changed so much since then." Sage added in.

"Remember how surprised he was when he went to my birthday party and saw my whole family? He must not have known what a real birthday party was like, with family, friends, and real presents. This explains a lot about Ryo." Kento sort of trailed off. They were all absorbed in memories of Ryo when they had first met.

"We still have a tape recorder to listen to. Does everyone want to listen to this now or do you want to wait?" Everyone said they wanted to listen to it now. Rowen hit the play button.

"How many families have you been through in the last two years Ryo?" There was no answer. They could hear what sounded to be like someone crying. "You're eleven now, you're to old to be crying." The Ronins all took an instant dislike to this doctor.

"If you won't answer the question I'll answer it for you. Four Ryo, four families. You lived with them, began to love them and then each time something happened. Why don't you tell me what happened to your first family?" They could hear the crying growing worse. "Not going to answer again are you. They were in a car accident that wiped out the entire family except you. You were the only survivor. Now what happened to your second family? Lets see they too met an unfortunate end. Children killed in a hunting accident while camping near the house. You were with them when it happened and once again you survived. The parents couldn't stand that you had survived and sent you back to the foster system." Everyone now was gritting their teeth in anger. This doctor was supposed to be helping Ryo, not reminding him of everything he had lost.

"Your third family you were taken away from because your welfare agent discovered the father was abusing the other children. Again you hadn't been touched. Do you see the pattern yet Ryo? All these things have happened to your families and yet you have come out relatively unharmed. Still don't see? Well I'll keep going then. Your most recent family you stayed the longest with. They died in a fire whose cause could not be determined, but it seems that even though you survived the fire you didn't come out unscathed. Report shows that you had been beaten quite recently. So how did that fire start? Ryo did you do it?" Ryo's breathing changed. He was no longer crying. He was angry. "They hit you and you got mad and set the house on fire didn't you?" They heard Ryo yell and then the man scream. "What kind of monster are you? How did you start that fire right now?" Ryo didn't stop he kept screaming. It was a scream of anger and hopelessness. They could hear the fire now. The tape recorder cut off.

"Ryo killed them didn't he." Asked Kento

"I'm not sure. Ryo probably didn't know what he was doing. He didn't have full control of his powers yet." Rowen replied. The tape continued then, it was a different doctor talking now.

"I took Ryo's case soon after this. It was determined that the fire was started by one of the candles that had been lit in the room. The doctor that had seen him then refused to take him back. He was convinced that Ryo was no normal child. He had convinced himself that Ryo had control over fire. I am only going to allow you to hear a message that Ryo left for me on my recorder during his last session with me. Unlike his first doctor we actually worked on solving some of his problems. Many of the sessions are very personal and I do not believe that he would want his friends to hear them."

"I know you'll find this later but I wanted to tell you that this is going to be our last session. I know that I told you about my new friends and how I think that I may finally have a family that won't leave me and I just wanted you to know that I appreciate everything you have done for me. If it weren't for you I never would have learned to trust people again. I know that you are trying to get me to remember what happened to me during that blank space in my memories and I am sorry that I was never able to remember. I don't think I want to remember. I know it has to be something bad.

I hope you'll understand me quitting my sessions like this. You have been seeing me for the last three years. You have become almost like a father figure for me. My new friends are patient with me. They let me follow them around and they don't mind that I don't talk very much. I just wanted you know that I think I have finally found somewhere that I belong." The tape recorder stopped. Everyone sat quietly for a few minutes. They had just heard how much Ryo trusted them and how much they meant to him. They just couldn't understand. If all that was true then why had Ryo done what he had to Cye?

"You don't think that Ryo went back to his parents do you?" Rowen asked

No one had a chance to answer because just then Mia yelled from upstairs that Cye was waking up. Everyone temporarily forgot about Ryo and raced upstairs to see about Cye.

Cye could feel himself finally waking up. He could already feel what was going to be a killer headache forming. Then he heard what sounded like a stampede coming up the stairs and into his room. He opened his eyes to be greeted by the smiling faces of his friends.

"We were worried about you for a while there Cye." Kento was almost bouncing up and down on the bed he was so excited that Cye was ok. Cye kind of suspected that some of the excitement was coming from the knowledge that Kento's favorite cook wasn't going to be out of business anytime soon. Cye looked around at the faces of his friends but the one he was looking for wasn't there.

"Where's Ryo? He wasn't hurt badly was he?" Cye asked still looking to see if maybe he had missed him.

"Why would you think that he was hurt? You're the one you should be worried about. It was Ryo that gave you that concussion. We saw the whole thing. Ryo pushed you into the porch for no reason and then started a fire, but don't worry we got rid of him for you. He won't attack you again." Kento was smiling when he finished but when he looked at Cye he stopped. Cye looked beyond angry.

"You made him leave! He didn't do anything to me." Cye was yelling

"He attacked you. We saw the whole thing." Rowen said calmly.

"He didn't attack me! The concussion was an accident. If he hadn't pushed me out of the way and then absorbed the fire I would have died! And now he is gone AGAIN!"

"Wait what do you mean he saved you life?" asked Sage

"There was something wrong with the grill. I couldn't get it to light. I started to panic because I couldn't get the gas to turn off either. It kept pumping into the air. All it was going to take was a little spark and the whole thing was going to blow up. I don't know how Ryo knew that I was in trouble but he saved my life." Cye glared at everyone in the room. No one could keep eye contact with him and they all looked down at their feet. "He had to have been hurt. He didn't have his armor on to protect his hands when he stuck them in the fire. Didn't you notice if he was burnt or not?" Cye looked at everyone again. None of them answered. "We have to go find him."

"We have done a terrible thing haven't we Sage. Ryo trusted us, felt safe with us, and we didn't even give him the chance to explain. We assumed he was guilty without even asking and then we made him leave." Rowen could hardly stand to think about what they had done after seeing that video and hearing that tape. "We were his family, he said that he knew that we wouldn't leave him and we made him leave." No one said anything. They wanted to go and look for him but they were no longer sure that if they found him he would still want to come back. They had chased him away twice. The only thing that could be heard was the rain that was beginning to come down.

Ryo POV

Ryo kept running until he was too tired to run anymore. Running had helped clear his mind some. He had recovered from the shock of Cye's panic and from the burning pain of everyone else's anger. He could think enough now to realize what had happened. His friends had made him leave again. They hadn't given him time to explain what had happened they had just assumed that he was guilty. Ryo knew that he was going to have to leave for good now. He only hoped that Cye was ok.

_Whiteblaze I need you._

_I know. I am on my way. Glad to see that you found yourself again. You were giving me headache with your constant calls for my help._

Ryo would have been irritated with him but he could feel Whiteblaze's relief behind his words. Ryo realized something. He hadn't noticed before while he was running but he could feel it now.

_I'm hurt. My hands are burnt. Whiteblaze please hurry its getting cold fast._

Whiteblaze could feel the pain in what Ryo was saying. He couldn't feel the cold though, not yet. It wasn't cold enough but at the rate the temperature was dropping it wouldn't be long before it would become dangerous for Ryo to be out here. To make it worse he could smell rain in the clouds overhead. He only hoped that he could reach Ryo before it started raining.

_I am going as fast as I can. Just don't move ok Ryo. Stay where you are._

Ryo couldn't even make himself angry with Whiteblaze for treating him like a little boy. The cold was already starting to affect him. He could feel himself starting to shake. Ryo tried to start a fire so that he could stay a little warmer while he waited for Whiteblaze to find him but when he tried the burns on his hand sent jolts of pain up his arm. There was no way he was going to be able to start a fire. Ryo leaned back against a nearby tree. He knew it was dangerous to fall asleep while he was cold but between the shock and the running all his body wanted to do was sleep. Ryo fought it off as long as he could but he could feel his eyes slowly closing.

_Whiteblaze, I'm falling asleep. I can't stop. Please hurry._

Ryo's eyes closed just as the first drops of rain began to fall.


	10. The search and Whiteblaze

Chapter 10 The search and Whiteblaze

Sage looked up at the storm clouds that were getting darker by the minute. Everyone was looking at them. It was already cold and there was rain on top of that. If Ryo was out in this without any shelter… no one wanted to think about what could happen to Ryo. There was another worry on every ones minds as well. What had happened when Ryo went back to his parents? It was only a small worry because everyone was sure that Ryo could stand up for himself against anyone. The only reason it was any worry at all was that Ryo had been acting weird and had possibly been sick.

"We're going to have to split up if we are going to find him before this storm hits." Rowen was yelling over the wind. The storm was really picking up as the temperature continued to drop.

"I'll head towards the lake." Yelled Cye. Cye knew that no one wanted him out here looking because of his head injury but after being told what was on the tapes and that Ryo was gone again Cye wanted to help find Ryo. Especially since he was the one that chased Ryo away the first time.

"I'll take the mountain path." Said Kento

"I'll head towards the main road and Sage that leaves you with the forest." Said Rowen. Everyone began to disperse and begin their separate searches when Sage yelled for them to stop.

"We need to meet back here in a half an hour. That's all the time we have before this storm cuts loose and I don't want anyone outside in this. We have to come back even if we haven't found Ryo."

"No way! I am not coming back until Ryo is found." Yelled Kento

"If we don't come back we risk having to look for each other and adding more time that Ryo is out in the cold and rain. I realize that none of us want to leave Ryo out in this but that is our only choice if we don't want to end up hurt or lost ourselves."

Everyone grudgingly agreed with Sage and then they all went their separate ways calling out Ryo's name.

Whiteblaze's POV

_Ryo wake up! Please wake up._

Whiteblaze was trying to wake up Ryo. He could tell already that there was very little chance of Ryo waking up. His lips were turning blue and he was shaking uncontrollably. Whiteblaze had tried everything he could think of to wake Ryo up but it wasn't working. He wasn't sure if it was the because of the cold and the rain or if it was because of everything that had happened.

Whiteblaze resigned himself to the fact that Ryo just wasn't going to wake up. He was going to have to drag him back to Mia's house. He wasn't real pleased with the idea. It would mean dragging Ryo through already soaked ground. Ryo would end up totally soaked. At least under the tree he had partial protection from the rain. He had no choice though; if he didn't get Ryo back soon the cold would kill him. Whiteblaze grabbed Ryo by the collar of his shirt and began to pull.

He had traveled about a mile when he realized that Ryo was no longer shaking and was barely breathing. He had to get Ryo back quickly. He could since the Ronins had been searching for Ryo and had headed back to the house. He had tried to contact them but the only one that could almost hear him was too focused on searching to hear his voice. The rest he knew weren't even going to feel what he was trying to say. If only Ryo would wake up.

_Ryo GET UP. If you can hear me, please say something._

Whiteblaze was about to give up when he felt a voice that was almost so soft that he couldn't hear it.

_White…blaze…cold_

Whiteblaze if he were a human would have leaped for joy. If Ryo could talk to him then maybe he could get Ryo to get onto his back. They could travel a lot faster that way and maybe Ryo would still have a chance.

_Climb on my back. We can travel faster._

Whiteblaze sent images of hot baths and warm cozy beds along with his request.

At first he thought he wasn't going to get a response. Then he saw Ryo's eyes open just a little.

_Blaze…cold…friends…sorry_

Whiteblaze couldn't figure out what Ryo was trying to say to him. The images that Ryo sent with it were to distorted and confused, but he decided to play on a hunch.

_Ryo your friends were looking for you. The_y _want you to come back. If you don't get up now they will have to live the rest of their lives thinking that it was their fault you died. If you don't get up you'll be hurting your friends._

Whiteblaze waited. He hoped that playing on Ryo's guilt would give him the incentive to live. He was right. Ryo began to push himself off the ground. Whiteblaze sat down. He knew that there was no way that Ryo was going to be able to stand up. Just doing what he was doing was a huge strain on Ryo. Whiteblaze could feel Ryo's pain as he forced frozen muscles to work. Ryo made it onto Whiteblaze's back and Whiteblaze began to run as if his life depended on it.

Ryo's POV

Ryo could feel himself slipping. The rain had made Whiteblaze's fur slick. He knew he was slipping but he couldn't do anything about it. The cold and rain had taken all of his strength. He wasn't sure how far they had gone but he felt that he was close to Mia's house. He hoped he would be able to hang on for a little while longer.

Whiteblaze jumped over a fallen tree and Ryo lost his grip. There was nothing Whiteblaze could do. Ryo fell off. Ryo's mouth opened in a silent scream when he hit the ground. The water was freezing and it felt like it was burning him. He felt himself start to shake and his awareness slip farther away. He could distantly hear Whiteblaze roaring and then he felt himself moving.


	11. Discovery

Chapter 11 Discovery

Everyone had run outside when they heard Whiteblaze roar. They could all tell that something was seriously wrong with Ryo. When they tried to use the bond to reach him there was a void where his mind should have been. Then when Whiteblaze roared they felt extreme pain coming from Ryo. Everyone knew what cold and water could do to Ryo after last year but no one was prepared for the pain. They all raced towards the forest trail where they could clearly hear Whiteblaze roaring.

They hadn't run very far when they saw Whiteblaze. He was standing over a lifeless form on the ground trying to protect the form from the rain. As they got closer Whiteblaze moved away and let them begin to tend to Ryo.

"Sage is he going to be ok?" asked Cye. Sage had dropped to his knees and was trying to determine what shape Ryo was in.

"We need to get him inside. He's… He's freezing. I can't tell if he has any other injuries in the dark like this." Sage's voice was beginning to crack. When he had touched Ryo the skin was colder than Ryo's had ever been. It was even colder than what it had been after the accident the year before. He wasn't sure if Ryo was going to survive this time and if he didn't he knew that it was going to be their fault.

Kento came forward and gently picked Ryo up. He glanced up in surprise when he realized how light Ryo was. He felt like he was carrying one of his younger siblings when they were sick. He treated Ryo like he was a fragile doll that was going to fall apart at any moment, but despite his special care Ryo still whimpered every time Kento took a step.

"What's wrong with him? I'm not hurting him am I?" Kento was very afraid that he was making Ryo worse in some way. He didn't want to hurt Ryo anymore than he already had.

"No Kento. I think its just the cold. We have to get him to the house as quickly as possible." Kento nodded to Sage and picked up the pace. Ryo still whimpered every once and a while, but it wasn't as often as before. Kento suspected that it was because of the heat his body was putting off. As soon as he had started to move faster, Ryo had latched onto Kento's shirt and was trying to get as close as possible to this new found heat. When they reached the house, Kento headed up stairs to Ryo's room. He knew that was going to be the best place for Ryo to be right now.

Ryo's POV

Ryo felt himself being lowered and tried to call out. The mysterious heat that had found him was leaving. He heard voices around him and felt someone prodding at the burns on his hand. Someone else was putting a warm washcloth on his forehead. The voices and the people touching him were starting to scare his already confused mind. He began to fight back as best he could.

"Ryo please hold still. It's just us. We're not going to hurt you." Rowen was trying to calm Ryo down. He was thrashing about on the bed trying to get away from all of them. At first it had hurt them slightly that Ryo was trying to get away from them but then they realized that he wasn't doing it to hurt them. They weren't even sure if Ryo knew they were there.

_Ryo calm down. You're with your friends. They aren't going to hurt you._

"Whiteblaze?" mumbled Ryo

Everyone looked at the Tiger in amazement. He had walked in and Ryo had immediately calmed down. He was no longer fighting them. It actually appeared that he was beginning to sleep.

"Cye you were right he did get burned." Sage was holding one of Ryo's hands. It was red and was forming blisters. It was when he moved Ryo's arm that he saw something he would never forget. The part of Ryo's arm that wasn't covered by his shirt lacked the muscle he knew should be there. It was just like what he had seen in the video of Ryo when he was abused…

"Guys, I think you should take a look at this." Everyone looked at what Sage was pointing out. He could literally see the blood leaving everyone's faces.

"You don't think he was…again?" Asked Rowen

No one answered but everyone reached out to lift Ryo's shirt at the same time. When they touched Ryo's shirt, Ryo screamed and they were all enveloped in a white light.


	12. Realization and surprise

Chapter 12 Realization and surprise

When Sage opened his eyes he saw that he was standing on a glowing red path. It was easily seen in the darkness that surrounded him. He looked around to see if he could see the others. It didn't take him long to find them. They were slowly moving towards him from separate paths. He could tell by their faces that none of them knew where they were.

Sage had his suspicions though. When he had been brought here, he was sure that he felt Ryo surrounding him. He suspected that they might all somehow have been pulled into Ryo's mind.

"Sage have you seen Ryo? We're all here except for him." Asked Cye

"I haven't seen him either." Sage didn't want to tell them what he suspected. He wasn't sure how they would react. Besides it wasn't like he could explain to them how Ryo had managed to get them here. He couldn't even explain it himself.

"I think what we should be worrying about is, where _are_ we?" Rowen always cut right to the point. Right now Sage almost hated him for this quality. He knew that Kento would now start asking questions and then they would ask him. He refused to tell them what he thought, until he had further proof.

"Sage…did you…ah…know that you're…glowing?" Whatever Sage was expecting from Kento this wasn't it. Everyone turned to look at Sage with curious eyes. Sage looked down at himself as well. He gasped in surprise. He was in fact glowing a faint shade of green. When he looked up he could almost see halos of color surrounding the other ronins.

"All of you are glowing slightly too." Everyone looked down and by their surprised looks Sage knew that they could see the glow as well.

"This is weird." Stated an amazed Kento

"What do we do now?" asked Cye

Everyone looked to Sage to answer. Somehow he had become temporary leader in Ryo's absence. He wasn't sure how it had happened because usually Rowen took that position. He sighed. How was he supposed to know what to do? Maybe they should all just stay here and see what happens before trying to venture onto the glowing red path.

_Follow the path. There are things that you must see._

Sage jerked his head around trying to find the location of the voice. It was the same voice he had heard telling them that they should look in the package. He still didn't know who the voice belonged too, but it seemed familiar in a way.

"I think we should follow the path." Sage was surprised to hear Kento answering Cye's question. It was just like before. When Sage had heard the voice saying that the package was important everyone had suddenly thought that the package was important. It just didn't make since.

No one voiced a separate opinion so they all set off down the glowing path. They hadn't gone far, when Sage's suspicion was proved to be true. Ahead of them, there was Ryo but it wasn't the Ryo they knew. It was Ryo as a three year old.

"That's Ryo isn't it?" Rowen looked at everyone to see if anyone disagreed. No one did. "But that can't be. How can he be a toddler again?" Rowen looked at Sage as if he should know something about what was going on. He knew he was going to have to say something now.

"Wait Kento don't!" Sage turned to see what Cye was yelling about. Kento was reaching toward the little version of Ryo. Then there was a flash of light.

They were no longer on the glowing path, but in a valley surrounded by mountains. In front of them the three-year-old Ryo was playing happily with a butterfly. He was chasing after it with his hands outstretched, making small baby noises. Sage laughed as he watched the boy play. He could hear the other Ronins laughing as well.

Suddenly the boy stopped playing and looked up towards one of the mountain paths. They could feel the fear radiating off Ryo in waves. Sage made a move to comfort him but discovered that he couldn't move. Two older children came down off the path.

Ryo froze. They could feel his confusion as to what to do. A part of him wanted to run, while another wanted to stay and fight. The little boy just couldn't sort himself out enough to know what he wanted to do, so he just stood there.

"Well if it isn't the elder's new favorite." Sneered a red headed young boy

"Come on Will, leave the kid alone. He's only a baby." Pleaded a black haired girl.

"No! If he is supposed to be so important and powerful, then he should be able to take anything I can dish out." Will slowly moved towards Ryo. The black haired girl ran back towards the trail. They could tell that she was going to go and get help, but they knew that no help would come in time for the little Ryo.

They all moved as one when they saw the boy raise a fist to hit Ryo, but once again they couldn't move. Ryo fell backwards to avoid getting punched. Will looked at him and seemed to change his mind about something. They all were relieved when they saw Will turn away from him. They thought it was over but Will turned around and killed the butterfly that Ryo had been playing with.

They could feel the little boy's heart breaking with his first experience of death. They could feel his pain. That was when they realized that by killing the butterfly, Will had done something far worse to Ryo than if he had hit him. Ryo had connected himself to the butterfly and when the butterfly died, Ryo had felt it. They all wished now more than ever that they could move. They couldn't stand to see the baby Ryo crying.

Suddenly they felt something change inside Ryo. It was as if his pain over the loss of the butterfly had caused a door to open. They watched as a white light enveloped his body and dirt and wind began to swirl around him. Sage watched closely as Ryo reached out towards the butterfly and touched it gently with his fingers. The butterfly began to move again. They were amazed at what the little boy was doing but they were also worried. Sage could feel the huge amount of energy the boy was pouring out of himself and into the butterfly. Sage heard one of the Ronins gasp as the butterfly flew out of Ryo's hand. Then just as if the door had been closed, the light disappeared and Ryo collapsed to the ground.

The scene was growing dim, as adults began swarming around the young Ryo. Everyone opened their eyes to find that they were back on the glowing path.

"What was that!" yelled a confused Kento

"I think that was a memory of Ryo. But how can that be possible?"

Sage found himself answering Rowen without much thought. "I think that somehow we got pulled into Ryo's head and these are his memories." Everyone looked at him like he was nuts. Sage felt his face turning red but he refused to back down.

"How is that possible? We couldn't be inside his head. We wouldn't fit." Kento was trying to break the tension by being funny but no one was laughing.

"I think that Ryo has become some sort of telepath and maybe an empath. When I tried to reach his mind earlier to see if he was ok, all I found were walls blocking me. I thought it was strange because only people with my gifts can create barriers as strong as the ones in Ryo's mind." Sage was talking faster as things began to click in his mind. " He doesn't have full control of his ability yet. It must have just started developing over the last few months. That must be why he was zoning out when he was around us and why he kept pushing us away." Sage looked up at the Ronins and looked each in the eye before saying what he knew had happened. "We were hurting him. He didn't understand what was happening to him and we…we were hurting him by our very presence." Sage had never felt so close to crying in front of his friends before in his life. When he looked up, he saw that the others were looking the same as he felt.

_It was not all your fault Ronins. I too played a part in what happened to Ryo._

Everyone looked around startled. They had heard that voice inside their heads. Everyone knew that it was possible for that to happen because of the bond that they all shared. Occasionally a person's thoughts would seep through but usually it was just emotions and even then it had to be an extreme situation for it to happen. This voice though was different. None of them knew whom it belonged to or how it had gotten in their heads.

"Who ever that was show yourselves!" yelled Kento

"Oh yeah Kento like that's really going to work." Replied Rowen

_I am over here._

They could see now who the voice belonged to. To say the Ronins were surprised would be an understatement. They had turned expecting to see maybe a minion of Talpa or at least a person, what they saw caught them totally by surprise.

Whiteblaze was slowly coming along the path behind them. He was glowing like they were, only brighter. The whole area seemed to be reacting to his presence. The road was glowing a brighter red and the darkness was receding some. For a few minutes everyone just stood and stared. They were too astonished to voice any opinions or thoughts. It was Sage who finally broke the silence.

"How did we get here?" Everyone could hear laughter in response to Sage's question.

_Of all the questions you could have asked that is your first one. I was expecting something like Wow Whiteblaze you can talk, or maybe something along the lines of are we loosing or minds. _Whiteblaze stopped talking because he found Sage's question so funny that he couldn't stop laughing before starting to talk to them again on a more serious note. _Ryo brought you here by accident. He didn't want any of you finding out a secret of his so he reacted in the same way a cornered animal does: without conscious thought._

"He did this because he didn't want us finding out he was abused? Why? I mean its not like we would abandon him…" Rowen trailed off. He realized that was exactly what they had done. They had abandoned him twice. Ryo had no reason to trust them anymore.

_It wasn't exactly your fault when you forced Ryo to leave the first time. I played a part in that._

The Ronins stared at Whiteblaze like he had grown horns or something. How could he have played a part in their actions when they didn't even know that he could talk like this until a few minutes ago. Whiteblaze feeling their confusion continued.

_I exaggerated your feelings. I took what all of you were feeling in small amounts and magnified it. All of you did have some animosity towards Ryo but it wasn't to the degree that I forced it to be at. I needed Ryo to leave and go back home._

"You mean that you made us want Ryo leave, JUST SO HE COULD GO BACK TO HIS ABUSIVE PARENTS?" Sage was yelling at Whiteblaze. The others were glaring angrily at him.

_I didn't know that they were abusive. Ryo has already forgiven me for what I have done. He understood my reasons and he wasn't angry because he was forced to leave by his friends._

Everyone could feel their anger slipping away. If Ryo had managed to forgive Whiteblaze for what he had done then they at least could try too. They owed that much to Ryo.

_We have to find Ryo now. He is some where in this place. He is the only way that any of you will be able to get back to your own bodies._

"You mean the real Ryo is in here? How are we supposed to find him? This place is huge." Said Cye

_We have to follow this trail. It should eventually lead to Ryo. I only ask that you don't touch anymore of the memory Ryos. Ryo has some painful memories that he doesn't want to relive because one of us accidentally triggered it. Whiteblaze glared at Kento while he was saying this._

"What? Anyone could have done it. I mean I was just curious." Everyone started walking on the trail leaving Kento to catch up, still trying to convince them that it wasn't really his fault.

Ryo POV

Ryo sat huddled a little ways off the glowing red path. He didn't know what to do. His powers had reacted by themselves when he realized that the Ronins were going to find out, and they had brought him here. He knew that he was somewhere inside his own mind, buried beyond reach from the outside world. He didn't want to leave. He wasn't sure he could face them if they knew, their pity, their sympathetic looks, and their loss of faith in his strength. He just couldn't take that. He sat with his arms wrapped protectively around his knees and his body was shaking. Distantly he could tell that he was dangerously cold, but it seemed so far away. He didn't want to leave this place. He was safe here. No one would find him.

Ryo closed his eyes. His body continued to shake.

Ronins POV

"I think I see him!" yelled Rowen

"I think that might be another memory Rowen." Replied Sage

They had passed Ryo during many different stages of his life. Some of the memories were happy while others were obviously unhappy memories. They had seen one that Sage assumed had to be the death of Ryo's mother. They saw Ryo standing next to the body of a young woman. His eyes so full of pain and suffering that they sped up in attempt to get away from those all to expressive eyes. They saw at one point, Ryo covered in what appeared to be black soot with an empty hollow look in his eyes. This was the Ryo that they were beginning to recognize.

When they had first met Ryo, he was easily scared and avoided touch at all costs. His eyes were dull and empty. They had taken him under their wing when he had fist shown up. It was strange to think about. When they first met Ryo they felt an overwhelming urge to protect him, to bring him out of the shell that he had created around himself, and now he was their leader. He was protecting them.

_We're getting closer. I can feel him now._

As the Ronins came around a bend in the trail they saw Ryo. They knew that it was the real Ryo because this image of Ryo was different. It was glowing a dull and lifeless gray. Everyone stopped walking. They didn't know what to do or say now that they had found Ryo. Only Whiteblaze continued walking.

_Ryo, you can't stay here. Your body is dying outside of this place and no one is there to help you_.

Ryo didn't respond. He didn't even acknowledge Whiteblaze's presence.

_You brought them all here. If you die now without getting them back to their own bodies they will die too._

The Ronins took this statement as a hint to head towards Ryo. As they approached, Ryo looked up at them, his eyes showing a dull pain at what they had done. Kento, Sage, and Rowen looked down at their feet. They couldn't stand to face Ryo right now, not after what they had done. Cye was the only one who was able to look directly at Ryo.

"I am sorry for what I did to you when we were at the lake. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I owe you a huge debt of gratitude for saving my life today." Said Cye

Ryo slowly raised his head to look at the bandage over Cye's head. Cye understood what Ryo was trying to ask.

"Its not a big deal, only a slight concussion. I'll live." Ryo nodded and slowly laid his head back down on his knees.

Sage came forward now and with him the remaining Ronins. They crowded around Sage trying to draw on his courage because at that moment neither Ronin could stand to even think about what they had done to Ryo.

"Ryo I'm….We're sorry. We didn't know what was going on at the time. All we could see was that you had attacked Cye at the lake and now it appeared you were doing it again. We reacted without thinking and for that we are sorry." Kento and Rowen nodded their heads in agreement and then, realizing that with his head down Ryo couldn't see them nodding, mumbled their own apologies.

Ryo wasn't sure what he felt or if he felt anything at all. His whole body felt numb and it was getting harder for him to focus on what was going on around him. He could feel himself slipping.

"Ryo please don't do this. We don't want to live with the guilt of your death on our hands. Please Ryo." Rowen was pleading with their leader. They could all feel Ryo fading and were trying to get him to fight again.

"We know about what happened to you when you were nine. Your doctor sent us the tape. Ryo we already know. We accept it. It's not going to affect how we feel towards you. Lets just forget about everything that has happened and start over. OK?" Cye was pleading as well.

Ryo could feel something reaching for him. It was warm and full of love. Ryo smiled blankly as his eyes began to close. The light and warmth reminded him of home.

"Home?"

Everyone leaned in closer trying to hear what Ryo was saying. They were waiting to see if he was going to say anything else to them or if that was going to be the last words they heard from their leader.

"Yeah Ryo, we'll all go home and then you'll feel better. Everything will go back to the way it was before. Come on Ryo lets go home." Said Kento. When his little sister had run a high fever the year before she had become delirious and had said she wanted to go home. When he had comforted her in this way she had calmed down. Kento hoped that maybe the same would work for Ryo. He moved forwards and reached down like he was going to pick up Ryo.

Ryo allowed the reaching warmth and light to envelope him. He collapsed silently into Kento's waiting arms.


	13. Sickness and nightmares

Chapter 13 sickness and nightmares

There was another flash of light in the small bedroom and four Ronins took a deep breath. They all felt like they had been holding their breaths to long. Then they all looked as one down at the form on the bed. Everyone was wondering the same thing, was he still alive. Rowen reached out hesitantly and touched Ryo's neck. Everyone gave a sigh of relief. They could tell by the look on Rowen's face that Ryo was still alive.

"Kento go start a cold bath. It can't be warm that would only make him worse. Cye, Bed Now." Sage was barking out orders. Kento moved to follow right away. He knew that if Ryo stood a chance it was only with Sage's help. Cye on the other hand turned to argue with Sage and as he did he realized how tired he was and how much his head hurt. He turned to leave. Bed sounded great and he knew that he would only be in the way. "Rowen we need to get these wet clothes off of him."

Sage turned to the closet to get some of the thick extra blankets that were kept on the upper shelf. Sage smiled slightly when he remembered why they were put there. Ryo got cold easily during the winter but he didn't want to bother any of them with his problems. When they had realized his weakness to cold they had moved all the heaviest blankets in the house, even if they had been on beds, into Ryo's closet telling him it was the only place that they could be stored. He was glad they had done that now.

Sage brought them back and set them on the floor. Rowen had already found a pair of scissors that could be used to cut through Ryo's clothes. This was another reason he had sent Kento away and not Rowen. Rowen thought about things before he leaped. Ryo's clothes were so wet that trying to pull them off would have caused even more discomfort to Ryo.

Rowen cut through Ryo's jeans and Sage gently pulled them off. Neither one was surprised at what they saw. Ryo's legs were covered in multicolored bruises and looked like they belonged on a skeleton. They cut through his shirt and were surprised to find the bandages that were wrapped tightly around his ribs.

"Sage you don't think…I mean his birthday was today?" Rowen cast an anxious look over at Sage.

"I don't know." Sage reached down and gently began to unwrap the bandages. He was trying to be as gentle as possible but even so Ryo still tried weakly to push Sage away and cried out softly in pain. When Sage was through they both knew that Ryo had in fact been given his birthday present.

"I don't care if they are his parents, if I ever catch them any where near him again I swear I am going to kill them." Sage was shaking with rage now. Ryo had been through so much, the fight with Talpa, a new armor, and another battle. Sage had seen him injured so many times but never had he seen him like this.

Kento came in and gently picked Ryo up saying that the bath was ready. If Ryo's condition made him angry he didn't show it. The only sign was a barley perceptible clinching of his hands that quickly disappeared when he remembered what condition the person he was carrying was in.

"Rowen I need you to go through Ryo's things and find him some clothes and if you could get his bed ready. I am going to go with Kento and see what I can do to heal Ryo." At Rowen's nod Sage turned the other direction and quickly caught up with Kento.

As they placed Ryo in the water he showed signs of waking.

"Ryo? Ryo can you hear me?" whispered Sage. He wasn't really expecting a response and was surprised when Ryo's eyes opened just enough for him to see out of and then his head nodded slightly. "I am going to try and heal some of your more serious wounds can you tell me what hurts the worst?" Sage didn't really need Ryo to tell him. His healing gift always pointed him towards the worst injuries but he wanted Ryo to stay awake for as long as possible.

"Cold." Ryo started to shake.

"I know Ryo but I can't fix that. We're working on it though. Tell us when the water feels cold to you. Ok?" Ryo slowly nodded his head "Now can you tell me what hurts the worst?"

Ryo's eyes started to close. Sage reached down and gently shook him till his eyes opened again. They were glazed and unfocused. Sage knew he wasn't going to get an answer from him in this condition but he wanted Ryo to stay awake. Kento, taking the hint, began talking softly to Ryo in an attempt to keep him awake.

Sage reached out with his gift and began searching for the worst of the injuries. The worst he could find were Ryo's broken ribs. He quickly fixed those and then worked on healing some of the bruises on his chest. He did everything he could and then dulled the pain from what he didn't have the energy to heal right then.

"I wish I could do more Ryo." Sage wasn't sure if Ryo could even hear what he was saying but he felt the need to apologize anyway. He still felt guilty for what had happened and not being able to fully heal Ryo was making him feel even worse.

_It's ok Sage. You did your best. Tell Kento to shut up I'm tired and besides he has told me this same story twice already._

Sage was startled at first when he heard Ryo's voice inside his head but then he remembered that Ryo now had the same gifts that he did. He could tell though that despite the humor that Ryo was trying to create that he was actually feeling really weak and cold. He wasn't out of the woods yet.

"Kento, Ryo wants you to shut up." Kento sent Sage a confused look and Sage tapped his head. Kento nodded in understanding. "He also wants to sleep but I think we will keep him awake for a little while longer." They carried Ryo back to his room.

"Do you think he'll be ok?" asked Rowen as they helped Ryo get dressed. At first Ryo had tried to get dressed himself embarrassed at being so helpless but it was apparent that he couldn't do it. The effort of just lifting his arms over his head had exhausted him. They couldn't keep him awake anymore after that.

"I don't know. I healed what I can but it's the cold that we really have to worry about." Sage answered.

As soon as they had put Ryo under the blankets Whiteblaze had jumped up on the bed. Ryo as if drawn to the heat turned and snuggled into Whiteblaze's fur. It would almost have been cute if it wasn't for Ryo' uncontrollable shaking and small bruised frame.

"I don't think we all need to stay. We can take turns doing watch." Said Rowen

"I don't want to leave him now, I mean didn't Sage say that he was some sort of telepath. Wouldn't he sense us if we left? What if he thought we were abandoning him again? Nope I am definitely staying here." Said Kento

"I guess I am with Kento too." Threw in Sage

"I guess I will go get the sleeping bags." Rowen sighed "Cye will probably end up in here so he can have the extra bed." Rowen left shaking his head.

Later that night

"His fever has gone up again." Sage said as he stood up next to the bed.

Ryo had gone from being extremely cold back to almost normal temperature at about 2:00 A.M. They were all relieved thinking that this was going to be the end and Ryo was now out of danger but it wasn't long until Ryo started burning with fever. They were doing everything they could think of to bring it down but so far nothing was working.

"Maybe we should wake him up." Said Kento

"What good would that do?" replied a frustrated Cye

"I don't know but he doesn't look like he is having peaceful dreams right now."

Ryo was tossing and turning on the bed. Occasionally he would mumble something incoherent and then continue his fretful sleep. They all felt so helpless. They couldn't do anything for their leader except sit and watch him suffer. They wanted to help so badly.

"I don't think we could wake him up now even if we tried." Said Rowen

Sage could feel something changing within Ryo. Something was breaking. When he realized what it was he tried to warn the guys before it broke totally.

"He's about to start pro…." Sage never finished. Ryo's shields had broken before he could warn them. Ryo was now projecting his nightmares into their minds.

They found that just like the memory that Kento had accidentally activated that they once again could not move. They could feel everything that Ryo was feeling and they could hear his thoughts. They were watching Ryo as he woke up and the pain that was in his head. They watched him muffle a scream when Kento's voice went through his mind. They understood now why Ryo tried to stay away from them. He could hear their thoughts and every time he did it was causing him extreme pain.

Sage felt terrible as he felt Ryo's insecurity and anxiety at trying to talk to him. He felt Ryo's need for help and fear of what his reaction was going to be. Then he felt Ryo's dismay as Sage yelled at him and told him to leave him alone.

They saw Ryo's version of their picnic. During the ride their Ryo had been tormented by their thoughts and feelings. Many of them were not kind thoughts about him and he was glad when the trip was finally over and he could get away from everyone. They felt his relief as he walked down the path towards the lake. Then they felt another voice invade on his mind. The ducks thoughts were overwhelming Ryo in his weakened shape. The duck's constant repetitive thoughts were distorting his mind. They watched as Ryo walked mindlessly out onto the ice and then reacted to Cye with the fear the duck was projecting into his mind. They felt his confusion at what had happened. They watched as Cye told him to leave and felt the destruction it caused.

They witnessed everything that had happened to Ryo over the last few months from his point of view. They saw how their own reactions made Ryo's pain even worse. They watched as he was beaten by his father and felt his shame. They watched as he worked relentlessly to learn to control his powers so he could return to them even after everything they had done to him.

The nightmare changed and it went to his surprise birthday party. They heard Cye's panicked thoughts and felt Cye's fear as they seared their way through Ryo's mind. They watched in horror as Ryo reacted and stuck his hands in the fire in an attempt to save Cye. They felt the pain of the burns. Then they watched as they made him leave again and felt Ryo's control break. Then it was over. Ryo wasn't projecting his dreams anymore and they were once again aware of the room they were in.

_I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I just…I couldn't…They fell and…I'm sorry. Don't make me leave. Please._

"He thinks we're going to make him leave again just because he accidentally projected nightmares we caused? What have we done?" Cye asked. He looked at everyone. They all looked equally shocked at what Ryo had said to them.

"Sage tell him! You have to tell him that we aren't mad at him anymore. We can't let him keep thinking like this." Kento was practically begging Sage to do something.

"I'll try but I can't promise I'll reach him. With his mind so confused and hurt right now I'm not sure he'll hear me." With that Sage reached his mind out trying to connect to Ryo.

_Ryo? Can you hear me?_

_S..Sage? Don't let them make me leave again, please!_

_Ryo it's ok. We're not mad at you. It's our fault that you are like this._

_I can stay now…not mad? I didn't mean to._

_We know Ryo. You can stay. We won't hurt you anymore_.

_Sage I don't feel so good._

_I know. Just rest now. We'll take care of you_.

Sage opened his eyes and looked into three sets of worried eyes.

"I reached him and I think I was able to convince him that we aren't mad at him. He sounded so lost. I can't believe that we did this to him."

"Yeah I know what you mean. He was in pain just being around us and we didn't even try and help. Just pushed him away. We owe him a huge apology for this." Said Rowen

Whiteblaze began to purr silently. They watched in amazement as Ryo's hand shakily reached out to pet Whiteblaze's head while he still slept. Sage took his temperature again and was relieved to find that it had gone down some. Maybe the worst was over.

"His fever is down some. Its still high but I think its starting to break." Everyone was very relieved to hear this news. " I think we all need to get some sleep now. Ryo is going to be very weak and is going to need us. We are going to need all the rest we can get." Everyone realized how tired they were and headed towards sleeping bags.


	14. Awake

Chapter 14 Awake

Ryo felt consciousness pulling at him but he was so warm and felt so safe. He didn't really want to wake up but soon his hunger wouldn't let him sleep anymore. He was starving.

He blinked his eyes open and didn't recognize his surroundings at first. The last thing he remembered was falling of Whiteblaze. He wasn't sure how long ago that was though. He thought he could remember different people waking him up and giving him soup or helping him get out of bed but he wasn't sure. Those memories were hazy and distorted and he thought maybe he had dreamed them.

He pushed himself up and was surprised when nothing hurt. He looked down at his bare chest and was amazed to see that there was no sign of the bruises that had been there and the ribs were healed. His arms were in the same condition. He realized that he must have been out for a long time.

When he looked around his room he realized that there were sleeping bags spread out along the floor and currently they were full of his friends. His extra bed held a sleeping Cye. He was tempted to let them sleep but he was so hungry. He picked up his pillow and threw it at Cye. It flew true and hit the sleeping warrior's head. Cye jerked up in bed.

"Who did that? I swear I am going to kill you if I find out which one of you it was!"

"Shhh. Cye don't wake them up. I did it. Hope you don't decide to kill me."

Cye just stared open mouthed at Ryo. Ryo, not sure what was going on, tried to talk to Cye again.

"Cye, I am really hungry. Could you please make breakfast before I starve?" Ryo really was hungry and he was feeling kind of disturbed at the way Cye was just staring at him like he had grown a horn or something. He quickly reached his hand up to his head to make sure and was relieved when he felt nothing there. For some reason Ryo felt perfectly at peace. He was safe again and nothing was going to happen to him here. He was happy without really knowing why.

"RYO!" Cye jumped up and ran over to Ryo and was now hugging him tightly. Ryo wasn't sure what was going on. All he had done was ask for breakfast and now Cye was hanging all over him like he hadn't seen him for a weeks or something. Ryo looked up when he heard a strangled sound coming from one of the sleeping bags.

He found Kento, Sage, and Rowen staring at him with the same open-mouthed look that Cye had earlier.

"Uh.. Hi guys? You wouldn't happen to know what is wrong with Cye would you? All I did was ask him for breakfast." Ryo didn't get a response but was now buried beneath all of the Ronin Warriors. They were all talking at the same time. He couldn't make out anything they were saying but he knew one thing. He couldn't breathe.

_I CAN'T BREATHE!_

Immediately the weight on top of him was removed and he took a shaky breathe of air. Now the Ronins had gone from trying to smother him to standing back away from him looking at the ground.

"Guys its not that big of a deal. You didn't hurt me or anything." When Ryo said that he felt like someone had said that to him before during his dream. Someone had promised that they weren't going to hurt him anymore. "I just want some breakfast."

No one would look at him or respond. He sighed in resignation. He was just going to have to get breakfast himself. If they wanted to sit there feeling bad for themselves then that was their problem. He slowly stood up. He wasn't surprised at how shaky he felt. This is what he had expected when he woke up, weak. He made his way over to the Ronins.

"You didn't hurt me. You were all just excited. Normally I wouldn't have a problem when four guys jump on top of me but.." he motioned at his very slim form "right now I'm a little out of shape."

At first he was sure that his words weren't going to have any affect at all on them but Kento looked up at him.

"Did you say something about breakfast? Cause I'm hungry."

"Your always hungry." Replied Cye

A friendly fight broke out and Ryo grinned in pleasure. This is what he was used to. This was normal. He felt his legs start to give out on him and some one grab his arm and put it around their shoulder for support. He suddenly felt sleepy but he refused to go to sleep until he had breakfast.

"Ryo you ok?" asked a voice. It took Ryo a minute to realize that the voice belonged to the person that was holding him up. Sage his sleepy mind told him. He was going to open his mouth to respond but the energy he felt earlier had disappeared. He decided on another method instead.

_Just tired. I think I overdid it there._

He projected his answer to everyone and not just Sage. It was much easier for him to talk this way than it was to talk out loud. He heard Sage say something about going back to bed and he answered with out thinking.

_NO! Not until I get breakfast. I'm starving._

He knew he was coming out sounding like a whining kid but he really wanted to have breakfast. Kento picked him and carried him down stairs. Ryo thought about complaining but he knew that he didn't want to walk down the stairs himself. He was put on the sofa while Cye went into the kitchen to make breakfast. He decided he would take a quick nap.


	15. Discussions and peace

Chapter 15 Discussions and peace

Everyone moved into the kitchen to talk and for once Cye didn't kick them out.

"Man I was so surprised this morning when he threw that pillow at me. I thought it was one you but then he told me not to wake ya'll up and he wanted breakfast." Said Cye as he was cooking.

"Its sure great to see him actually aware of his surroundings for a change. Its been a month since the night he spent out in the rain. I was starting to think he might never get better." Said Kento as he tried to reach a piece of bacon that was in his range.

"Don't even think about touching that Kento. I'm making all of Ryo's favorite things this morning. So you better not eat it all." Said Cye without even looking at Kento

"We were all thinking that he might not ever get better. Even though he is somewhat better, he is still so weak. Just his being up for that long drained him." Said Rowen

"Yeah but he'll get stronger faster now or at least my sister did. When she got sick with that bad fever, as soon as she woke up for real she started getting stronger a lot faster because she could eat real food instead of soup." Said Kento

"Breakfast is ready. Somebody go wake up Ryo and the rest of you help me set the table." Said Cye. Kento got up to get Ryo and everyone else moved to help. In the kitched everyone knew Cye was the boss. Whatever he said you did.

Ryo POV

Ryo felt someone nudging him and calling his name. It wasn't this though that actually got him to wake up. His nose smelled food. He was finally going to get to eat something.

"I'm up already." He said to get Kento to stop. He felt stronger again but he was still tired. So when Kento picked him he didn't complain. He wanted to be able to feed himself so he was saving all his energy for that task. He was placed in front of a plate full of food. He didn't even wait for everyone before he started eating. He was so hungry.

"Ryo if you don't slow down you're going to choke on your food." Said Kento while nodding his head knowingly.

Ryo mumbled something through his mouth full of food that no one could understand but he did slow down some. When Ryo had finished eating about twice as much as Kento, he decided that it was time that he had some questions answered.

"How long was I out? I know it had to be a while since most of my injuries have healed and I think I gained a little weight."

"You were out for a little over a month. For a while it was touch and go. We were afraid that you were going to die but you didn't. Then all you did was sleep. When we were able to wake you up, you weren't really aware of what was happening. We would feed you and get you out of bed, but never once did you actually say anything or show any sign that you were even there…" Sage trailed off.

"We were really worried about you. So when you woke up by yourself this morning we were really surprised." Added Rowen

Ryo remembered seeing everyone sleeping in his room this morning and decided that was another question that he needed answered.

"Have all of you been sleeping in my room since I got sick?"

"Yeah, we didn't want to leave you alone again. We all felt so bad about what we had done to you and we didn't want you to think that we abandoned you again." Said Cye.

"Guys I don't blame you. I did at first but I realized that you just didn't know what I was going through. I mean it wasn't like I did anything to make you want to help me. So stop worrying about it. Its done and over with." Said Ryo

Ryo hoped that would clear up everything because he wasn't sure he was going to be awake much longer. He could feel himself starting to lean forwards and his eyes starting to close. Rowen kept him from falling out of his chair. Ryo had enough time to send him a quick thanks before sleep engulfed him.

Two months later

Ryo thought back over the last two months. Cye had been forcing food down his throat every time he was awake for longer than ten minutes. He guessed he owed Cye for his weight gain. He was still about twenty pounds underweight but he no longer appeared to be a skeleton.

He also had gained a lot of his strength and energy back. He wasn't allowing Kento to carry him around any more and he wasn't falling asleep at strange times either. He only slept once or twice now during the day and stayed awake longer. It wasn't like before where he was up for fifteen minutes then asleep for two or three hours.

The Ronins were no longer acting like he was going to blame them for everything that happened. They were almost treating him like normal. Except that they sometimes acted like he was going to break if they touched him but he was planning on fixing that today.

He was watching the Ronins train. He hadn't been allowed to join in for the last two months but today he was planning on changing that. He knew that he was ready now and it wasn't just him trying to be macho either. He watched as Sage finally threw Kento. When the match was over he stood up and headed towards Rowen. Rowen was the next person up to fight and Ryo was pretty sure that if he went out there and tried to fight with Rowen that Rowen might let him fight.

"Ryo what are you doing? You know you're not ready to be out here yet." Said Rowen as Ryo approached

"Come on Rowen. I'm tired of just sitting around. Let me try this once and if I can't handle then I won't bother you about it until you tell me I'm ready." Said Ryo. He was purposely making himself sound whiny hoping that maybe Rowen would fall for his trick.

"Ok Ryo. I'll fight cha but I'm going to take it easy on you." Rowen turned to quiet all the complaints coming from the rest of guys and Ryo smiled to himself. He wasn't going to loose this match. He pulled down his barriers and allowed himself to feel everything that Rowen was feeling and thinking. As the fight began Ryo knew exactly what Rowen was going to do.

"Wow Ryo is actually doing good out there. I bet in a minute Rowen won't be holding anything back." Said Kento. He didn't get a reply. Everyone was to busy watching the fight.

Ryo finally saw the opening that he knew was about to occur and pinned Rowen. Everyone watching cheered.

"I guess you were right. You are ready to start training with us again." Said Rowen as Ryo helped him off the ground

"Hold on before we give him permission he had to fight me." Said Sage as he walked up.

Rowen opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it when he saw Sage's face. Rowen turned and headed the side lines to watch the fight.

Ryo reached out again and realized with a start that he wasn't going to be able to read Sage's moves.

"Can't cheat this time. You sure that you want to go through with this now?" said Sage

So Sage knew he had been cheating in the match against Rowen. It didn't matter though. Ryo was still sure he could be beat Sage with out cheating. He smiled and nodded his head. The fight began.

Ryo felt himself going back to when he was first taught to fight. It wasn't to long after he had been taken from his father so he was still underweight and small. At first his size and weight hampered him. His opponents were always bigger and stronger. Not wanting to keep loosing until he was as big as he was supposed to be he created his own fighting form. He only used it for the few months that he was to small to really be a challenge. It was a tiring way of fighting but it made his wins all that much better. He felt himself slip into that way of fighting. He knew he was going to win.

"What's Ryo doing? Have any of you ever seen him fight like that?" asked Cye. Ryo's muscles were totally lax. There was no way for any of them to tell how he was going to move next.

"No but he is sure giving Sage a run for his money." Sage only made contact with Ryo one or two times and even then it was only glancing blows. Ryo's moves continued to be unpredictable. Sage pulled back trying to figure out how he was supposed to beat Ryo when he couldn't tell what Ryo was going to do next. Ryo took this moment to attack. He swung his foot out knocking Sage to the ground and then pinned him the same way he pinned Rowen.

"I told you I was ready." Said Ryo as he pulled Sage up. Everyone rushed over to talk to Ryo about the way he was fighting.

"How did you do that Ryo? You've never used that technique before." Asked Sage

"Sage you forgot that I learned to fight soon after being taken from my parents. I was underweight, weak, and small. I didn't stand a chance against any of my age mates who were all bigger and well fed. So I created my own way of fighting. I only used it for a short while and then I was finally strong enough to fight the way my instructors were teaching me. I was still small but that way of fighting, if it only does one thing it builds your strength." Replied Ryo

They could all tell that Ryo was tired. He was swaying on his feet but they could tell he was happy. For the first time since he woke up they were finally sure that everything was going to be o.k. Ryo was going to get better and everything would go back to the way it was before. They all laughed as they helped a tired Ryo back into the house. They were all finally at peace


End file.
